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ITALY m TEAISITION. 



PUBLIC SCENES AND PKIVATE OPINIONS IN THE 
SPRING OF 1860; 



Mmtxattlf bg ODfficial iHotnmmtQ 



THE PAPAL APwCHIVES OF THE REVOLTED LEGATIONS. 



BY WILIIAM ARTHUR, A.M., 

ATJTHOE OF "a MISSION TO THE MYSOEE," *'THE SUCCESSFUL MEECHANT," 

*'the tongue op fibe," etc., etc. 



NEW YORK: <J 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FEANKLIN SQUAEB. 
I860. 



THIS VOLUME 

WITH PROFOUND RESPECT AND GRATEFUL AFFECTION, 

TO ONE OF ENGLAND'S BEST SONS, 

AND OF ITALY'S WARMEST FRIENDS, 

THE SEVENTH EAKL OF SHAFTESBURY, 



PREFACE. 



The Documents mentioned on tlie title-page form 
two ponderous volumes, containing sixteen hundred 
pages, whicli cost in Florence fifty-seven francs twelve 
centimes, about two pounds six shillings. They were 
collected by a decree of Farini as Dictator of the 
Emilia. It was expected that a congress would as- 
semble at Paris to solve the difl&culties arising out of 
the peace of Villa Franca, in which case efforts would 
be made to bring the Eomagna once more under the 
dominion of the Pope. The government which had 
replaced his resolved that the plenipotentaries of Eu- 
i-ope should have in their hands the best means of 
judging as to the justice of the determination felt by 
the people to return no more under the temporal au- 
thority of His Holiness. Commissioners were ap- 
pointed in the different provinces to search the ar- 
chives and forward documents to the appointed edi- 
tor, the Cavaliere Achille Gennarelli. 

Large quantities of records proved to be wanting 

from several reasons. In Eavenna, the documents 

connected with ^^ great causes" had been sent to 

Rome. In Faenza, the archives had been burned by 

A ^ 



U PEEFACB. 

the enraged populace. These defects admitted of 
some reparation ; for in other cities correspondence 
of the Eavenna authorities existed ; and as to Faen- 
za, leading facts were put upon record under formal 
attestation of witnesses. But some defects admitted 
of no remedy. In Ferrara, a secretary general, Tel- 
larini, had spent three days in burning papers : all 
the minutes and decisions of the tremendous Coun- 
cil of Censure had disappeared in every part of the 
Eomagna; and the ^^most reserved" correspondence, 
contained in registers marked P. P., and kept by the 
legates themselves, without any intervention of oflS.- 
cials, was entirely missing. 

Notwithstanding all this, matter was forthcoming 
suflS-cient to furnish the two huge books already is- 
sued: these consist of the correspondence of legates, 
pro-legates, delegates, governors, military and police 
authorities, with one another, and with the ministers 
at Eome ; of judicial records, decrees of synods, in- 
quisitors, bishops, and other public records. Four- 
teen thousand documents remain to be published.^ 

* See Relazione a S. E. il Cavalier e Luigi Farini, Governatore 
delle Provinde Unite delV Emilia^ which is prefixed to the first vol- 
ume. The title of the volumes is, // Governo Pontijicio e lo Stato 
Romano : Documenti preceduti da una Esposizione Storica, e raccolii, 
per Decreto del Governo delle JRomagne, dal Cav, Achille Gennai'elli^ 
Avvocato nella sacra Rota^gia Residente dl Collegio della Pontificia 
Academia A7'chelogica, Sfc, Sfc, ^c. Parte Prima^ pp. cxv., 646. 
Parte Seconda, pp. xxxviii., 686, cxx. 



PREFACE. lU 

In the ^^ Documents" nse is freely made of italics 
and small capitals to mark points worthy of special 
note ; but, as I presume this to be the editor's work, 
and not in the originals, all quoted here are given 
without these helps to eyes unused to detect the full 
import of official language. In a few instances in the 
Appendix they are retained. 

In several cases, the substance of a set of docu- 
ments has been framed into a connected narrative. 
Here I challenge keen examination as to the care 
with which facts are stated. For instance, in the 
narrative of the death of Garibaldi's wife, striking 
circumstances generally believed, and perhaps capa- 
ble of proof by other evidence, are omitted, and noth- 
ing given but what the documents in the collection 
supply. 

The Cavaliere Gennarelli, in publishing an Italian 
edition of '^ The Pope and the Congress," has accom- 
panied it with so much historical matter as to make 
a valuable little book, under the title, ^^I Lutti dello 
JStato Bomanoy As he confines himself chiefly to 
comments on the Documents edited by himself, I 
have now and then also quoted from this work, al- 
ways distinguishing his statements from what is of- 
ficial. \ 

For the translations in the Appendix, and a few 
of those in the body of the book, I am indebted to 
my brother, Mr. James K. Arthur. 



IV PEEFACE. 



As to tlie narrative part of this book, its only 
value, if it lias any, lies in reporting the opinions of 
persons of all classes, uttered freely to a stranger, 
who, not being a person of consequence, was the 
more likely to hear their real views. If it helps stay- 
ers at home to any idea of the scenes my friends and 
I witnessed, if it gives them the least share of the 
pleasure we enjoyed, and, still more, if it lead any to 
a deeper sympathy in the sorrows of the Italian peo- 
ple, a stronger interest in their welfare, and, above all, 
to prayer for the blessing ^of God upon the nation 
now rising up in their long disjointed provinces, it 
will not have appeared in vain. 

NoTTiNG Hill, July 4:th, 1860. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Savoy PENDiNa Annexation 7 

CHAPTER II. 
Across Mont Cenis 17 

CHAPTER HI. 
Turin during the Voting upon Annexation in Central 
Italy 31 

CHAPTER IV. 
Into Lombardy 69 

CHAPTER V. 
Milan during the Rejoicings for the Annexation 79 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Great Plain 115 

CHAPTER VII. 
PiACENZA, Parma, and Modena 133 

CHAPTER VIII. 

EOLOGNA DURING THE GENERAL ELECTIONS 149 

CHAPTER IX. 
Papal Government in the Romagna during the Ten 
Years of Restoration, as shown by official Docu- 
ments 179 

CHAPTER X. 
The Apennines 205 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE 

Florence at the Arkival of the Prince of Carignano; 

AND also at the RECEPTION OF ViCTOR EMMANUEL 223 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Sunrise Shore 253 

CHAPTER XIII. 
CiviTA Vecchia and the Campagna 267 

CHAPTER XIY. 
Rome in Holy Week 283 

CHAPTER XV. 
Papal Governivient in Rome during the Ten Years op 
Restoration, as shown by official Documents 361 

APPENDIX. 

The Wife of Garibaldi 405 

The Conforteria of the Ferrara Case 406 

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 409 

Judgment of the Court of Bologna 411 

Edict of the Synod at Loretto 414 

Decree of an Inquisitor General 423 



SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 



The train from Lyons worms its way among tlie out- 
lying Alps like a steamer on a mountain river, which 
sometimes appears as if she must run against the solid 
cliffs, but, at the right moment, finds a cunning outlet. 
The hills of France are passing into those of Savoy 
without any chasm to mark the change. We stop be- 
fore a pretty Swiss-looking station, where, on neigh- 
boring doors, we read, ^^ Imperial Custom-house^'^ and 
" Sardinian Custom-house.^'* It is the frontier post of 
Culoz. 

Presenting ourselves to the Sardinian Custom-house 
officer to have baggage and passports examined, he 
says, " It is not necessary. If you were entering France 
from Piedmont, it would be so ; but now you are in 
France and entering Savoy, which is neither Sardinian 
nor French." This was said with an easy air, showing 
that while all our powers in England, from Palmerston 
down to Punch, were discussing the probable annexa- 
tion of Savoy, it had already been settled in the mind 
of this potentate of the frontier. I said with a smile, 
" Savoy is Sardinian to-day ; to-morrow it may be 
French." He gave me a patronizing nod, as much as 

A 2 



10 ITALY IN TRAKSITION. 

to say, " You are rather intelligent for an Englishman ;" 
and then added, " Very probably it will be so." 

A little way from the frontier line a noble lake opens 
out among darksome momitains. They press it in on 
both sides to the very brink. Still for miles and miles 
it stretches on, gleaming beautifully under the bright 
sky. Along one shore runs a railway, now burrowing 
in the mountain's side, now peeping out upon the sun- 
ny water, now wiading right round the curving shore. 
It bears the name of Victor Emmanuel. On the oppo- 
site side, close under the brows of a stern mountain, is 
a quaint old castle, the place where lie the ashes of his 
forefathers, those ancient Counts of Savoy, whose sepul- 
chre is part of the payment, wrung from him by his im- 
perial kinsman, for services in Italy. 

The mountains stand grandly around Chambery, and 
the sunsets are fine ; but it is a poor country town, ex- 
ceedingly unlike the capital of any thing. The people 
say it has 20,000 inhabitants, the books say 10,000, and 
the eye sides with the books. Friars, in the robes of 
their orders, tell that you are neariug Italy; newspa- 
pers, free and loud in their political opinions, tell that 
you are not in France. It is a very dull place in spite 
of three barracks, four nunneries, and three monasteries. 
Before the French Revolution there were twenty con- 
vents in all. It has one grand street, surpassing any 
thing in most English provincial towns, and worthy of 
Turin. Near it stands a fantastic monument of ele- 



SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 11 

phants and fountains, reared to General de Boigne, who, 
in serving the Mahrattas, amassed heaps of money, and 
bestowed nearly three and a half millions of francs on 
his native town in charities. 

How India meets me every where ! Once, driving 
on the Highland road, I asked the coachman who own- 
ed that new seat rising np to enrich a mountain dis- 
trict. " Mr. , from India." The other day, seeing 

one of those grand new houses facing Kensington Gar- 
dens, on the rise of Bayswater Hill, occupied, I heard 

it was taken by Sir J. , from India. At the Cape 

of Good Hope, driving through Wynberg, you are told 
that beautiful village is a sanitarium for families from 
India. In Egypt you find that Alexandria was built, 
that Suez exists, that railways are at work, and the ca- 
nal through the Isthmus is discussed, all for India. 

The physical type of the people of Chambery is not 
French, Italian, or Swiss ; a touch of all ; most of the 
last. They are well-made, and not ill-looking , but the 
peasantry are of a low type, high cheek-bone, dull 
browny-yellow complexion, black, massy hair, and squat 
person. Although the general stature seems good, and 
we met with a real giant, there is a remarkable number 
of dwarfs. 

The tombs of the old Savoy princes lie behind Cham- 
bery, and their cradle before it, in the district of Mau- 
rienne. The road and the railway both run by the side 
of the swift Isere, the course of which dark-browed 
mountains overhang, and vines fringe, and poor but pic- 



12 ITAI.Y IN TEANSITION. 

turesque villages animate. We found that the river 
had made an eruption upon the railway, and at one 
place carried it clean away. We were obhged to get 
into diligences ; and here I found myself with a number 
of Savoyards. Opposite me sat a burly drover. I hap- 
pened to observe that in England there was at present 
a good deal of discussion about Savoy, when the drover 
passionately repUed, "We never speak of England here; 
we don't like England ; we hke France ; we never name 
England." This provoked good-natured and polite re- 
monstrances from his neighbors, who, however, all ap- 
peared to share in the political feeling indicated by his 
ebullition. There was one woman who had, perhaps, a 
little disinclination to be annexed, but the preference of 
the others was clearly pronounced. One very intelli- 
gent man made no complaint of the part England took 
in the matter, except that one member of Parliament 
had, in a debate, used the expression, " Perish Savoy !" 
I told them the probability was that the same gentle- 
man would say, "Perish England!" rather than have a 
war with France. They spoke of their relations with 
Piedmont as being nothing better than those of a trib- 
utary province ; because, owing to the barrier of the 
Alps, they could not have any commercial intercourse 
with it ; and from the exigencies of Italy, the govern- 
ment was obliged to give all its thought and money to 
its Italian possessions ; so that Savoy, poor in itself, was 
made still poorer by contributing to national fimds in 
the benefits of which it had no participation. 



SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 13 

In changing from the railway, the porters who trans- 
ferred the luggage uttered some fierce grumbles against 
the English, calling us. by the Continental sobriquet^ 
taken from our national vulgar oath, which a sort of 
rough justice has stereotyped into a nickname, that 
commemorates both our imperious mode of speaking to 
foreigners and our use of bad language. The English- 
man's name abroad is too often the " G — d d — n." I 
felt a sort of blush as these rough, poor, but honest- 
looking Savoyards muttered, not thinking I heard them, 
this epithet. It reminded me of another scene. One 
beautiful Monday morning, near Jebel Ryboon, in the 
midst of Egyptian desolation, an intelligent Bedouin, 
returning from a survey of a camping ground he had 
discovered, brandished a bottle, and cried, " They were 
English : this is the token of the Englishman : you can 
trace him by it any where." 

After another run upon the railway, we stopped at 
St. Jean de Maurienne. This is a valley nobly girt with 
Alps. One sometimes sees fanciful resemblances. I 
hardly know why this place constantly brought to my 
mind the Wady Shellal, in the Arabian Desert, except 
that the hills were equally grand and all-surrounding, 
but here they have not the same splendid variety of 
color. The valley is wider, and vegetation frequent ; 
for pines grow on the mountain tops, and vineyards en- 
rich their bases, whereas in Shellal all is undisputed 
rock. The greatest difference, however, is that here is 
a town in the bottom of the valley ; and when your eye 



14 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

has accustomed itself to the snow, you can pick out 
roof after roof, village after village, spire and tower, far 
up upon the cold white mountains. What takes men 
away up there ? By what opposite instincts is the hab- 
itation of the world effected! The gregarious one, 
which makes the dingiest lane of cities teem with in- 
habitants, and the pioneering one, which drives some 
farther and higher than others had reached, and sets 
them always to wrestle with nature rather than com- 
pete with man. 

On a spring day, in the bright sun, the air of St. Jean 
is wonderfully refreshing. The snoAV lies thick upon 
the upper hills, three yards deep, they say. In the val- 
ley it is all gone. A httle river and a torrent, in a noisy 
race to meet the Isere, join under a quaint wooden 
bridge. The ground is strewed with boulders brought 
down in a recent flood, which has left the old bed of 
the torrent dry, and desolated the valley. The hotel 
was all but swept away ; and, as we have already seen, 
a little farther down, the Isere, triumphing over the 
engineers, carried off eight or nine miles of their iron 
way. 

In a short walk up the valley we met with two cases 
of goitre. The first was a man — short, gingerbread 
color, low forehead, matted hair, thin voice, very slow 
in intellect, and the whole base of the neck bulged out. 
He was painfully disengaging the rich soil from the 
stony ruin with which the flood had overrun the valley. 
The second was an old woman, more than seventy, 



SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 15 

pleasant as a child, light-hearted, and full of racy sto- 
ries, especially about the fine mineral waters close by, 
and their effects, as shown upon the invahds returning 
from the late wars. She was little goitred in compari- 
son with the man. 

Another old woman was gathering something from 
among the stones, where to all appearance nothing was 
to be found. When asked what it was, most civilly 
she came to show it. It was dandelion for salad. Poor 
thing ! she looked a picture of decent poverty, and 
seemed to have no thought of begging. On getting a 
few sous, how gratefully she said, " You do not know 
what a service you do me ! I will pray to the good 
God for you." She then told how poor she was, and 
her old man had been ill for months, and often they had 
no bread ; but it was not in complaint, but in gratitude 
for the sous. Talking of the sorrows of life easily led 
to talk of God's love and mercy; she cheerfully re- 
sponded. When I told her of His free mode of giving 
us absolution of sin, she said the priest had set her cer- 
tain penances; that she had not time to go through 
them rightly, and her mind was troubled. It was pleas- 
ant to tell her how God absolved like a King, freely 
and of pure mercy, for the sake of His Son alone. 

You may go a good way before you find a purer air 
than in the valley of St. Jean, or a dirtier walk than 
through the town and round it. It is worth going 
some distance to see an English lady picking her steps 
in the streets, and still more in the outskirts of the 



16 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

town. As to the floors of the hotel, they seem to re- 
joice in perfect exemption from suds or scrubbing- 
brushes. 

Perhaps, in going through Savoy, you will now and 
then find yourself asking, " When will the country be- 
gin ?" as yet you only see mountains. Then you may 
smile at yourself, and recall the old story of the clown 
in the city, who could not see the town for houses. 
These mountains are Savoy. 

When I next saw the valley of St. Jean de Maurienne, 
the decree of annexation had passed : troops of French 
soldiers were winding among the Alpine passes, and 
the Savoyards seemed well content that they and their 
vines were to belong, henceforth, to the nation to which 
their language and their interests pointed them. It is 
a poor country, but beautiful ; and with its lakes, its 
mountains, its vineyards, its glaciers, and its sunsets, if 
it is henceforth to be known in European diplomacy as 
the IDEA, it must, at least, be admitted that the idea is 
a romantic one. 

In modern warfare the rifled gun may be a great im- 
provement, but it is nothing to that crooked one by 
which a statesman, appearing to aim straight up the 
street, really shoots round the corner. Piedmont fought 
for Milan upon the Tchernaya, and France for Savoy 
upon the Muxcio. 



ACROSS JVIONT CENIS. 



The first time I crossed Mont Cenis was in October, 
before the pass had become clogged with the great falls 
of snow. We wound up from Lanslebourg in the morn- 
ing twilight, with Alps now stretching higher than we 
could see from the windows of the coupe^ and now 
bearing stars upon their shoulders. About sunrise we 
reached the line of snow, and then the peaks, gloriously- 
blushed into great varieties of color ; yet, beautiful as 
are those tints, drawn out by the morning sun from the 
snow of the Alps, I doubt whether they exceed, if indeed 
they equal, those drawn by the setting one from the 
peaks of Sinai, where he shines upon rock, and rock 
alone. Mysterious power and wealth of light ! when 
heaven really beams upon earth, be it cold snow or hard 
rock, all things beam again with splendor. 

The descent of the mountain on the Italian side was 
incomparably grand : the morning sun shining right be- 
fore you, the sensation#of height and depth, the vast 
range over which the eye swept, and the joy of motion 
as you galloped down and down. After a while a wide 
white surface, gleaming and stretching up an opening 
valley, spread far beneath. For miles and miles away 



20 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

it sparkled and glistened, narrowing and winding among 
the hills like a lake, now looking like water, now like 
snow-wreaths, now like hUls and dells of ice. With us 
was a Savoyard gentleman, who exclaimed, '' How like 
the Mer-de-giace of Mont Blanc !" And we were en- 
chanted with the glacier — all the more so, because no 
description had prepared us to expect one. But what 
was our surprise to find that this glassy scene was only 
what, if looking at it from the ground below, we should 
call " a cloud," though, viewed now from the heaven- 
ward side, it was all sheen and glory, the beauty and 
wonder of the wiiole landscape. It was many hundreds 
of feet below us. I had seen a broader sheet of clouds, 
lying farther down, hiding the plains of the Mysore from 
the tops of the ISTeilgherries ; but, grand as that sight 
was, it had none of this icelike witchery. Every ap- 
proach seemed but to heighten the impression ; for the 
valley opened out ; and as it did so, the seeming glacier 
spread farther and grew brighter. 

At length we came near enough to see the light mist 
floating above the denser body of the cloud. Then 
trees, the trunks of which were hidden, held up their 
tops above it into the sunshine ; then a house, the walls 
of which seemed as if they were under water, had its 
roof in the full light. Presently the horses' heads go 
into the mysterious mist, and then we ourselves are 
steeped in it. First of all the mountain peaks disap- 
pear, then the trees ; then the sun loses his beams, 
looks for a while like a red plate of metal, turns darker. 



ACROSS MONT CENIS. 21 

and finally is quenched, and at last the horses' heads are 
the most distant objects within view. Still down we 
rush through the cloud, as we had rushed down toward 
it ; and then, in a few minutes more, just as w^e had 
gradually plunged in, we gradually plunge out of it, 
and the vale of Susa, our first glimpse of Italy, wooded 
and watered, and shimmering with tremulous light, 
opens to the view. 

When we got out, our glacier of the morning hung 
hundreds of feet overhead, just like an ordinary mass 
of light gray cloud. It made one think how often, in 
life, what is a mist while we are passing through it, and 
afterward a cloud, would seem not the gloom, but the 
beauty of our journey, had we the power of looking 
upon things from the heavenward instead of the earth- 
ward side. 

Good old Colonel , of the Bombay army, who 

was in another part of the diligence, could hardly be- 
lieve us, at first, that it had not been a glacier, and then 
seemed any thing but pleased to lose the idea that he 
had seen one grander than all his imaginations. 

The next time I passed Mont Cenis was in the pres- 
ent year, surrounded by a mass of uniforms, French 
and Sardinian, and a cloud of smoke. The night was 
fine, the air, notwithstanding the season, mild, and, I 
believe, but for the tobacco, would have been pure. 
On my left was a fine, intelligent French staff*-officer ; 
on the right, an educated, shrewd Sardinian one ; in 
the front other French ones, rough, soldierly, and good- 



22 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

humored. Before my nationality was discovered, they 
discussed military organization. Our army passed un- 
der review. All agreed that the British soldier was a 
first-rate one ; and it was even said that, owing to the 
superior education diffused throughout England, he 
was, individually, more intelligent than the French one; 
but as to military organization ! 

" Fine soldiers," said the Piedmontese, " but without 
organization, and badly commanded." 

" Oh, the English," replied a Frenchman, " they are 
the Chinese of Europe. They were just the same in 
the Crimea as they had been at Waterloo ; they had 
not advanced a step." 

" No wonder all went wrong with them," said the 
Sardinian. 

"Just imagine r" strikes in the staff-officer; "they 
are indeed the Chinese. The other day, in Parliament, 
a member proposed to abolish that antique abuse which 
makes the British officer a jest in all the armies of Eu- 
rope, the purchase of promotion ; and positively a large 
majority voted for its preservation !" 

A laugh followed, with the remark, " Oh, really, that, 
at any rate, does not belong to our age !" Something 
occurred to bring out the fact that I was English, when 
they asked my opinion on the points just alluded to. I 
said that there was one thing in which I did not agree, 
namely, that British officers supported the purchase sys- 
tem from self-interest. It was much more from a caste 
feeling ; for really the service was so poorly paid that 



ACEOSS MOJsrr cenis. 23 

one could not charge them with self-interest in the mat- 
ter. To this they replied, " That may be ; but a caste 
feeling applied to a national service is in itself a mean 
form of self-interest ; and, after all, in a purchase system 
it is plain that men can get forward who under a sys- 
tem of advance by talent would be left far behind." 

The allusion to a caste feeling brought remarks on 
the absurdity of a system that, m England above all 
countries, shut out the middle class. " England is the 
nation celebrated for a middle class, but the army is 
only high and low. England is the country of tempt- 
ing careers ; the son of a baker or barber, if well edu- 
cated, may become a peer ; but the army is a blind al- 
ley, into which no man with ambition will enter unless 
he has money or patrons. England is the nation of 
voluntary enlistment, and all inducements to the most 
pushing class in the country are withheld. No wonder 
that the government is at a loss for men, and that re- 
cruits are generally clowns. And in this day, when the 
individual intelligence of the man and the non-commis- 
sioned officer is a quality equal in value to ability in the 
general, to continue a system that leaves a non-commis- 
sioned officer all but hopeless of a gentleman's position, 
and so keeps away all who are capable of winning it, 
but unable to buy it !" Such is the substance of much 
that was said. 

This conversation raised a question as to the bear- 
ings of the purchase system which home discussions 
would not be likely to bring before one. These foreign 



24 ITALY IIT TRANSITION. 

soldiers, if called to face an English army, would be- 
lieve that the men in the chief places were not the best 
heads, but the best purchasers. How much would this 
feeling reduce the moral impression made upon a hos- 
tile army by a British force ? Their opinion might be 
wrong, but while our system lasts they will hold it. 

The stock argument in defense did not fare very well. 
" After all, the British army is well officered." 

" The British army well officered ! It is bravely of- 
ficered. No men can be braver ; but as to being well 
officered, what is it, in a British army, that breaks down ? 
The soldier ? Never. What broke down in the Cri- 
mea — the soldiers ? What broke down in Cabul, when 
the Affghans annihilated a British force — the soldier ? 
No, the army was badly officered. Those were at the 
foot who ought to have been at the head. Is it not a 
fact that the English, at the breaking out of a war, count 
upon losing for a campaign or two, till the incapable of- 
ficers are put out of the way, and men fit to command 
turn up ?" 

As I was not Secretary for War, I let the matter 
drop as soon as they pleased, feeling that, whatever 
might be the rights of the case, it was not in good 
hands, and was suffering heavy damage. 

Throughout the night conversation passed upon dif- 
ferent topics, but I was struck with this, that not one 
word was uttered on any point connected with Savoy, 
Italy, or France, their relations or their prospects — a 
tolerably plain indication that these were delicate sub- 



ACEOSS MONT CENIS. 25 

jects. When the others had fallen asleep, the staff-of- 
ficer talked a little to me, first about Savoy, seeming 
honestly to wonder that England should object to 
France having the " keys of her own house." I replied 
that whether France would be better or worse for the 
possession of Savoy, depended on the correctness of an 
opinion solemnly pronounced by the emperor in his 
grand proclamation from Milan, to the effect that in the 
present day material aggrandizement was not so valua- 
ble a power to a nation as moral influence. If this was . 
correct, he, in exchanging the prestige of a disinterest- 
ed campaign for the territorial remuneration of a prov- 
ince, sold a greater for a lesser power. When we pass- 
ed on to speak of Italy, he was quite positive that the 
French army would soon be recalled, and said that he 
had it direct from Marshal Vaillant. " We have done 
what we could for them, and if they won't take our ad- 
vice, we must leave them to take care of themselves. 
We have not 50,000 lives, and (I forget how many) 
millions of francs, to throw away every year for them." 
One observation rather surprised me. " You have no 
idea," he said, " how bad a feeling the Piedmontese have 
toward us. If one of their officers is saluted in the streets 
by a Frenchman, he looks down upon him {de haul en 
has)^ as if to say, ' I wonder who you may be.' " Of the 
future prospects of Italy he spoke gloomily. " If Ca- 
vour," he said, " could have his own way, things would 
be brought to magnificent results ; but he is thwarted 
by many, and much perplexed by the rash movements 

B 



26 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

of the king." He argued that, between the hot-headed 
patriots on one side and the priest party on the other, 
the constitutional throne would come to the ground. 
This, too, had been the vein of the most intelligent Sa- 
voyard I heard discussing the question. But the latter 
said that they, in welcoming annexation with France, 
counted on the fall of the Napoleon dynasty and the 
restoration of the national liberties. He seemed great- 
ly surprised to hear me say that in England we w^ished 
to see some dynasty take root in France, caring little 
which, but desiring repose for our neighbor nation. He 
had counted that the fall of a Bonaparte would in itself 
be a pleasant anticipation for a Briton. 

Throughout the night not an oath or an ungentle- 
manly word passed the lips of these French and Italian 
soldiers. 

When I passed the mountain before, the room in the 
quaint inn at Lanslebourg was very quiet, with an old 
English colonel, well known in India, and one or two 
other travelers. Now there was a large crowd, En- 
glish, French, Swiss, Savoyards, and Italians, all talking 
their various languages, and many of them in uniform. 
The snow here lay thick upon the ground — thicker than 
at the same season for thirty years. Wheels could 
work no higher up the mountain, sledges had to be 
used ; but they were not the graceful things which skim 
and tinkle along the streets of New York in the winter, 
but simply diligences mounted on sledges instead of 
wheels. All the enormous baggage had to be unloaded 



ACROSS MONT CENIS. 27 

and loaded in the snow. I watched our own conductor, 
and wondered at his industry, good-humor, and address. 
When all was over, what a hurried snatch of food he 
had by way of supper ! But with all this he was cheer- 
ful as a lark and civil as a gentleman. We were soon 
packed in again, and the crunch, crunch, crunch of the 
sledges upon the snow began, and the smoking com- 
menced anew. 

Up and up, amid seas of snow, in rolling waves, 
threatening hills, and yawning gulfs. Across these 
gulfs stretched mysterious lines, which, in the snowy 
night-light, looked as if the dazzled eye were forming 
fancy cords in air. When we paused near one of the 
long stretches, the lines hummed like fairy bees haunt- 
ing the dells of snow. It is the song of the wire, mur- 
muring the music of nature's joy at the union of long- 
sundered peoples. It is the voice of Him who delights 
in the habitable parts of the earth, and who has made 
of one blood all nations of men. Here, over the ever- 
lasting hills, Italy and England are mingling thought 
and impulse ; so that while the lamp kindled at Turin 
for a triumph of Italy is yet burning, eyes beam at the 
news around London firesides. Volta and Wheatstone, 
the suggestive genius of Italy, the plastic power of 
England, are forevermore united in those wires ; and 
though, for the time, they bear news of wars, their 
work is the work of peace. 

Up and up, Alps in front, Alps to the left, Alps to 
the right, Alps closing in behind ; up with the morning 



28 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

Star glowing above the unbroken snow, up winding, 
w^inding, winding summits above, cbasms below, huge 
shades flung over the mountain sides, and frail-looking 
pines hanging on the crags — up and up, wearily for the 
horses, cozily for us. Foot-warmers had been borrow- 
ed from the railway, and rugs and wraps were made 
unexpectedly useless. At last came a halt. " Monsieur, 
something for the ascent," says a postillion at the win- 
dow, and he takes his leave. 

Then down we slide — not as rapidly as in the former 
descent described ; and after a long run we reach the 
edge of the deep snow, where the diligences are waiting. 
The sun was just coming up over the shoulder of an 
eastward jutting of the mountains — ^he might have been 
leaning upon it. The hills behind were white, and va- 
rious, and grand ; before, was stretching the valley 
wherein formerly the cloud had given us the shining 
spectacle of a glacier. An Alpine village down, down, 
oh how far down ! was sending up its morning smoke. 
Where it lay, not a particle of snow was upon the 
ground. Beyond it, the Dora, a little river which joins 
the Po at Turin, was racing away to the great plain, 
looking just as it had done when I saw it last, though 
in the mean time the legions of France had hurried 
along it to victory or death, and had marched back 
again, some carrying with them their wounds, some 
mementoes of comrades who would never return. 

After all the packing had been done over again, we 
were once more in the diligences, leaving our sledges 



ACEOSS MONT CENIS. 29 

behind. As the porter put in the foot-warmers, one of 
the French officers, finding that, by this time, all the 
heat was gone, said, with a laugh, " This is like con- 
fession. If it does no good, it does no harm." We 
had then a little talk, and the staff-officer said to me, 
" The Holy Father will soon blow up {va hientot saU" 
ter)^ and where they'll put him, who knows ?" 

The next time we crossed Mont Cenis it was far more 
difficult work. Fresh snow had just fallen ; the wind 
was blowing high; the cold pierced through every 
thing ; the poor beasts shrank and turned round again 
and again ; the eyelashes of the men were frozen. One 
of the sledges was stuck fast more than an hour and a 
half in a wreath of snow, and the great, mild mastiff of 
the St. Bernard breed kept alongside, as if he thought 
he might be wanted ; but by the skill, caution, and un- 
failing good-humor of all the men, every thing went on 
well ; and after such a night's toil, one could not but 
feel grateful to the poor fellows who, for a miserable 
pittance, endure such hardships, watching for the safety 
of those whom they have never seen before, and may 
never see again. 



Cjrniitn HI 



TURIN DURING THE VOTING UPON ANNEXATION 
IN CENTRAL ITALY. 



In the railway carriage from Susa we had an Italian 
lady and gentleman. Both were rather inclined to talk 
of the French as shallow and vain. Of England they 
were profoundly ignorant, and learned particulars as to 
our Constitution with frank surprise and sometimes 
with loud approbation. The lady was from Florence, 
and disliked the idea of its becoming a provincial city ; 
the gentleman from Milan, and gloried in the new state 
of things. In my explanations about England, I dwelt 
on our views of Christianity. The lady listened with 
eagerness, the gentleman rather uneasily, taking every 
opportunity of dashing back to politics. 

The day was beautiful, and as the valley of the Po 
opened out, backed and fringed by the purple hills and 
the snow summits, with the old castles so high, high 
up, and the quaint carts and clumsy horses, brown men 
and stately asses, the trellised vines, the mulberries, the 
English steam-horse racing merrily, and, above all, the 
rich Italian light, it acted like a charm upon the spirits, 
and prepared one to hail Turin. 

On first entering Turin I was more taken by sur- 
prise than in any capital I had visited. Nothing had 

B2 



34 ITALY IN TRAlSrSITIOlSr. 

led nje to expect a city of such pretensions. It is 
regular, open, and very beautiful. The site is level, 
the streets rectangular, and the buildings more uniform, 
perhaps, than in any other capital. Yet, partly by the 
help of nature, partly by that of architecture, the im- 
pression of sameness is hardly made, or, at least, was 
not on me. Two notable examples of regular cities are 
Carlsruhe, the type of concentric regularity, and Phila- 
delphia that of the rectangular. The former is oppress- 
ively dull, and the latter, noble city as it is, becomes 
wearisome. But in Turin, the grand height and scale 
of the buildings, with the abundance of architectural 
ornament, prevents dullness in the street-fronts ; and, 
turn whatever side you may, all openings terminate in 
a mountain. Sometimes it is a hill, thick set with villas, 
on what is called " the CoUina," or southern chain, and 
sometimes it is one of the Alps. In the street called 
" the Dora Grossa" you have a line, nearly an English 
mile long, terminated on one side by the facade of a 
palace, on the other by an Alp nine thousand feet 
high. 

The Po, though here not nearly such a river as the 
Thames at London, is so treated as to be a great orna- 
ment to the town ; and the street leading up from it 
toward the palace is really grand, with a row of porti- 
coes on each side, and behind a great church, the Madre 
di Dio^ like the Pantheon of Rome. 

At my second visit I expected to be less impressed 
than at the first ; but here it was, the same grand, uni- 



TIJIIIN'. 35 

form, airy city, worthy to be the capital of the young 
kiDgdom. It looks as if some one had formed a noble 
design, and had it nobly carried out. What a contrast 
to London, which, up and down, in and out, squat, clay- 
colored, without plan or dignity except in the squares, 
having occasionally a new street struggling up to a 
worthy scale, and in, perhaps, two of the modern quar- 
ters, proofs of design, looks as if it had not been made, 
but had " grown," like Topsy and the British Constitu- 
tion ! Yet it has incomparable sites. Were Holborn 
and Oxford Street, Ludgate Hill and the Strand, built 
on some such scale as the streets of Turin, what a city 
it would be ! Were the line from the Marble Arch to 
Bayswater turned properly to account, the Rue Rivoli 
would be beaten hollow. Were the existing quantity 
of sightly building disposed upon some great plan, no 
capital could touch it. Had that old glutton of a cor- 
poration spent half the money on men of genius it has 
done on cooks and butchers, instead of every foreigner 
returning from London to tell what a heap of dingy 
villages we live in, they would come back to say that 
London was the worthy mansion of a great family. 
What influence France gains by the beauty of Paris, 
and how much we lose by the ugliness of London! 
The capital is to a nation what the family-seat is to an 
individual, and has as much to do with its social influ- 
ence in the circle of its neighbors. Our damp climate 
and quantities of coal-smoke impose upon us greater 
necessity for attention to civic architecture than lies 



36 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

upon others ; for an inferior building in France or Italy 
will look better than a superior one in London ; and 
yet, in this respect, we have lain complacently behind 
our neighbors. 

On leaving the railway station you almost immedi- 
ately cross a noble street, planted on either side with 
trees, the Strada del Re. Here, in a conspicuous place, 
is a beautiful building, bearing the inscription, " Stand 
ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where 
is the good way, and walk thereia, and ye shall find 
rest for your souls." What can this mean? It is a 
church ; and yet, in Italy, churches are not wont to 
have inscriptions from the word of God in the vulgar 
tongue. You may go through all the cities, from Como 
to Syracuse, and perhaps you will not find, on the house 
of God, one word of the Bible that the people can read, 
either inside or out. 

What, then, is this ? It is an appeal to antiquity, 
but an appeal to the Bible, and a challenge to read it. 
You ask the first passer-by, " What is this building ?" 
and the answer is, " It is the church of the Vaudois." 
What recollections does this answer call up ! By those 
strange flashes which show to the mind, in a moment, 
the shades of past things, you see the Alpine valleys 
hidden there among those hills — the obscure and men- 
aced flocks gathering at their peril, and hearing the 
Word of God ; you see the advancing soldiers of the 
house of Savoy ; then fire and blood, tortures and ex- 
iles, and the same scene over and over again, at each 



TUEIN. 37 

fresh encounter the hands of Rome growing redder, 
the name of Vaudois more venerable, until reformed 
nations arise to call them heirs of the old faith — until, 
later, the thunders of the revolutionary time silence the 
bolts of the Vatican — until, at last, at last, the chains 
they had borne for ages are off, and they are permitted, 
as citizens, to stand erect upon the soil of Italy. And 
here that old church, true from the beginning, true 
through the darkest ages, true against all the kings, 
true against the people of her own language, true 
against the powers Rome could bring to bear upon 
her by letters or by arms, is at last permitted to come 
out from her mountain hiding-place, holding the faith 
she had received from her remotest fathers; and, set- 
ting her foot in this one free capital of Italy, she turns 
her face to the land that hunted her so long, and lifts 
up ber hands in prayer that God would wipe away the 
blood with which it is stained, and send it days of 
Christian light and rest. 

It was on a beautiful Sunday morning, with such 
thoughts filling my mind, that I approached that fair 
temple. A group was standing at the door : they were 
soldiers — soldiers of the house of Savoy, going in uni- 
form to the Vaudois temple, not to commit havoc, but 
to worship God under the protection of law. I never 
looked at a foreign soldier with such interest before. 
A medal hung upon the breast of one or two, looking 
like a half-crown piece ; but, ugly as it was, it had a 
greater charm for me, just then, than the more tasteful 



38 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

ones of the Continental states — the countenance of 
Queen Victoria was stamped upon it. It was her Cri- 
mean memento to the heroes of the Itahan army who 
had there stood by our side. By the two signs of the 
Piedmontese uniform and the Enghsh medal, it seemed 
as if the houses of Hanover and Savoy joined hands on 
this church threshold to uphold the consecrated princi- 
ple of freedom to worship God. 

In this church I attended services in the French and 
ItaUan languages, and in the adjacent school-rooms 
week-day services in both. On one of the latter occa- 
sions the excellent Pastor Meille brought out, with great 
effect, the fact that the first Gentile who had received 
the Gospel was an Italian, and dwelt on the special ob- 
ligation which rested upon their countrymen to cherish 
the pure Christian religion, and to spread it far and 
wide. Attached to the church are a boys', girls', and 
infants' schools, and an orphanage. The children in the 
latter are of Vaudois parents, who are lodged on the 
premises, and put out to learn trades in Turin, to be 
sent back to the valleys, carrying with them the arts 
they have gained here. Under the same roof is a print- 
ing-office, with two presses at work ; and we saw them 
throwing off the New Testament in large type. They 
have already a very considerable number of religious 
books, and regularly publish a paper called " The Good 
News," which boldly advocates the principles of scrip- 
tural religion. 

The pecuharity of the Vaudois is, that they can not 



TUKIN. 39 

properly be called Protestants, because, never having 
acknowledged the authority of Rome, or fallen into her 
errors, they never had to protest against them other- 
wise than by the perpetual struggle of centuries. They 
are an aboriginal Christian Church, holding the forms 
and the doctrines handed down from the most distant 
Christian times. 

Every time I renewed my intercourse with Mr. Meille 
it was with increased esteem ; and all I saw of the Vau- 
dois brethren and their agents in other parts of Italy 
but confirmed the opinion I had conceived of them, and 
increased the affection with which all Reformed Chris- 
tians are predisposed to regard them. 

Besides their congregation, another exists in the 
town, presided over by a very remarkable man. Dr. De- 
santis, formerly a parish priest in the city of Rome. 
He has now for many years stood his ground as a pas- 
tor upon Italian soil; and active<as Rome is in invent- 
ing calumnies against every one whom she calls an 
apostate priest, his name stands unblemished. Far 
away from the present scene of his labors, when it ap- 
pears upon the title-page of a book, it insures a large 
circle of readers. He is a grave, thoughtful, silent, earn- 
est man, with the stamp of a teacher upon him ; and 
one would greatly desire to see him occupying some 
position in which the gifts that God has given him 
would tell more directly in training minds for the fu- 
ture enlightenment of his country. The converts at- 
tached to these two churches are principally from the 



40 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

lower ranks, though many of them persons of education 
and intelligence. The numbers are sufficient to encour- 
age those who labor there, yet, as compared with the 
great mass of the community, so small as to make no 
general impression; and thus both the casual observer 
who thinks all is in vain, and the practical worker who 
thinks all hopeful, can easily cite grounds for their re- 
spective opinions. 

On reaching Turin this spring, we found the city 
wearing a gala-day look, flags hanging from the win- 
dows, streets teeming with people, troops in full dress 
and new uniform, festive looks, jubilant crowds — all 
things bespoke a rejoicing. 

A visit to a hairdresser is seldom lost time when you 
want to gain a glimpse at the popular mind. It only 
needed an inquiry to set off the man who was serving 
me in an eloquent strain of exultation. The news of 
the voting in Central Italy was coming in ; it was all in 
favor of annexation. It was far beyond what any one 
expected. There was to be an Italian kingdom. The 
Itahans were to be united at last. The old jealousies 
were dying out. Also, this was the king's birthday, 
and he was to go to the theatre to-night ; and what a 
reception he would have ! Then, in a day or two, Fa- 
rini was to come in from the Emilia to lay the allegi- 
ance of those states at the feet of the king ; and in a 
day or two more Ricasoli was to come, bearing the re- 
sult of the voting in Tuscany ; and what receptions they 
would both have ! And so on he ran in a tide of patri- 



TUKIN. 41 

otic eloquence. How different was this man's strain 
from that of a Frenchman under any thing like similar 
circumstances ! There was as much feeling ; but, in- 
tense as it was, he was grave, almost solemn, and, what 
I did not expect, there was scarcely an extravagant 
word. If he was a fair specimen of men of his class, 
the intelligence of the people of Turin ought to rank 
high. 

In the streets one was greatly impressed with the 
appearance of the soldiers ; for, being the king's birth- 
day, they were all in new uniform, and better-dressed 
men I never saw belonging to any army, or men of finer 
physical proportions. So far as one could judge, they 
were in strict discipline, and every where the towns- 
people seemed to look upon them with pride. As some 
regiments marched up before the palace, carrying flags 
that were gloriously tattered, scarcely able to hang by 
the staff, the excitement of the people was high. 

Several points seemed to indicate the progress of 
events in the last few years. The streets were more 
thronged. The bearing of the people was bolder and 
livelier. The style of dress for men approached nearer 
to English fashions. It seemed plain that (except the 
hat) London ruled the taste for gentlemen, as Paris does 
that for ladies. At the table d^hote the company was 
much larger ; and, instead of being nearly all foreigners 
— -English, American, German, and so on — it consisted 
chiefly of Italians, and national topics occupied almost 
every tongue. 



42 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

Entering a merchant's office, I delivered a letter of 
introduction, and found a cordial reception. Two part- 
ners took part in the conversation. " What a moment 
you come at!" they exclaimed: "what a moment! The 
voting in Central Italy is all favorable to the annexa- 
tion. We did not expect such a magnificent result. 
Italy never saw such a day ! We are a nation — a na- 
tion at last ! We may have troubles, and doubtless we 
shall have; but I have confidence that it will all be 
well." With reference to the past, they seemed to 
think that the Emperor of the French was well paid by 
Savoy, and that, however serviceable he had been, they 
had acquitted their debts to him. 

When I asked what the bearing of all this would be 
upon the relation of the Itahan people to the Church, it 
was plain that this was just the point upon which their 
views were the most undefined, and on which they were 
eager to hear what others might think. I told them 
plainly that, according to our ideas, many of the super- 
stitions and doctrines found in the modern churches 
were not only distinct from the true Christian rehgion, 
but totally opposed to it. The old man looked as 
though a familiar doubt slumbering in his mind had 
been started up, and armed. I urged that we ought to 
learn religion from Christ's own words, the words of 
His apostles, the faith and forms of the first age. No 
man could beUeve that what they saw before their eyes 
in Italy, under the name of Christianity, was the same 
thing as had been established eighteen centuries ago by 



TUEIN". 43 

the apostles of our Lord ; and the duty of all was to 
discover the ancient truths and forms, to adhere to 
them, and to let all the accretions of the middle and 
modern ages fall away. In reply to all this, nothing 
was said, but the dark eyes looked approbation. 

After all that I had heard among the Savoyards of 
their anxiety for annexation to France, it was rather 
amusing to find that these Piedmontese took it for 
granted that the measure would be unwelcome to the 
people of Savoy. They were specially sure that when 
it came to voting in the army, the great majority of the 
men, and all the officers, would be for retaining their 
connection with Piedmont. Indeed, the fact had been 
ascertained. 

In another house of business I found a young, ener- 
getic, thoughtful man, who again received me with very 
great kindness. " You are come," he exclaimed, '' at a 
glorious moment ; you have heard of the voting for the 
annexation ; all is going far better than we could have 
expected. The Emperor of the French will surely be 
satisfied now, and stand no longer in the way of the nat- 
ural rights of Italy. We have been divided and dis- 
tracted too long by princes and diplomatists ; it is sure- 
ly time, then, to let nature have its course, and Italy 
will be a nation after all. England has stood by us, and 
we feel it now much more than we did a while ago." 
When I asked him Avhether he thought they had a fair 
probability that the new nation would consolidate itself 
and retain its independence, he acknowledged that their 



44 ITALY IN TRAKSmON. 

difficulties would be great, arising from Austrian and 
Roman hatred and French jealousy, but he felt confi- 
dent as to the future. 

When I gave a hint that it would probably be better 
not to attempt to revolutionize the provinces still in 
bonds, but to consolidate the new kingdom, and leave 
time, and the example of free institutions, to do their 
work, he energetically protested against the common 
accusation that their government maintained a great 
propagandist agency for the overthrow of the other 
governments of Italy. " Of cohrse," he said, " it would 
be impossible to be an Italian, or a man living under 
free institutions, such as we have enjoyed for some years 
past, and see the rest of the country in the miserable ' 
condition it has been in, without burning for its deliv- 
erance, and its union into one strong and independent 
nation. All that have any heart or head desire this, 
and avow it before the world. But as to propagand- 
ism, the real'propaganda has been our institutions — our 
Parliament, which has discussed national questions ; our 
press, which has gone every where, spreading Italian 
ideas ; our army, fighting the Austrians and the Rus- 
sians, and fixing upon itself the eyes of Italy ; our ref- 
ugees, gathered from all the oppressed states, mana- 
ging to make their friends at home know how different 
things were under the Constitution ; and, most of all, 
Cavour — Papa Cavour" — and this woBd was uttered in 
tones of pecuUar affection and exultant confidence. "He 
has so thoroughly gained the confidence of all Italians, 



TURIN. 45 

that they rally round him as the symbol of the national 
life, and wherever his name is heard of they wish to be 
nnited with the system he represents. He is the great 
propaganda by force of patriotism and talent." 

In the letter of introduction something was said 
which led him to ask me if I was not an ecclesiastic. 
" Yes, I am what we call ' a minister' or ' pastor,' but 
it is not the same as a priest." He wanted to know 
the difference. " The differences are as great as can be. 
A priest is one who professes daily to repeat the sacri- 
fice of the Son of God, and offer it up again for sin. In 
our view, as taught by the New Testament, this is not 
only without a sanction in Christianity, but wildly con- 
tradictory to the spirit and letter of its teaching and to 
the example of the apostles. They ever speak of one 
Priest only, Jesus Christ, who offered Himself up a 
sacrifice for the sins of the world ; and that sacri- 
fice, once for all, never more to be repeated or simula- 
ted. We should as soon think of professing to repeat 
His miraculous birth or His resurrection as His one 
great sacrifice of Himself." To him this distinction 
was new and striking. " Again, a priest is one who 
tells you that, as he represents an infallible Church, you 
have only to confide your soul, in matters of salvation, 
to his guidance, and that he will be answerable ; that 
if you obey him, or the Church speaking through him, 
you have discharged your responsibility ; and thus, 
when you put the greatest question that a man can put, 
' What must I do to obtain remission of my sins ?' he 



46 ITALY IN TEANSITIOX. 

tells you to go to him, to confide them all into his ear, 
and that he will give you God's absolution. This is 
what no apostle ever did. It is a tremendous transac- 
tion between two men, of which we find no record or 
hint in any part of the New Testament. When men 
came to St. Peter, asking him what they must do to be 
saved, he never told them that they must go privately 
with him, confide the detail of their sins to him, and re- 
ceive at his hand the Lord's absolution, as if he were a 
jDOwer standing between them and God. On the con- 
trary, he told them simply to ' repent of their sins, and 
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.' He instructed them, 
set them an example of Christian life, preached to them, 
held meetings for edification and prayer with them, but 
he never assumed to be a necessary medium between 
them and their Maker." 

'' Then," he said, " according to you, the priest, in- 
stead of being a sort of little god on earth, is just a 
si^iritual friend and director ?'^-^ " Yes," I said ; " and 
not a director in the absolute sense in which the Church 
of Rome uses that word ; because we, as Christian min- 
isters, feel that what we teach must be strictly accord- 
ing to the Word of God ; and that it is the duty of 
Christian people to receive it not implicitly because we 
say it, but to prove it by reading the Scriptures for 
themselves, and seeing that what they hear is not the 
word of man, but is, in truth, the old teaching of proph- 
ets and apostles. The work of the minister is to in- 
struct, and lead, and guide the Church, but at every 



TUKIN. 47 

point basing his authority and doctrine upon the Scrip- 
tures, and, above all, ever pointing the trust of the peo- 
ple away from himself and his own offices to the one 
sacrifice of Christ, ofiered upon the cross, and to His 
everlasting priesthood fulfilled in heaven for us." 

It was strange the interest with w^hich this was list- 
ened to — an interest partly of novelty, partly of poli- 
tics, because every such question at the moment bore 
upon the great national movement, and partly, let us 
hope, of a true desire to know what Reformed Chris- 
tians really thought upon the great question of religion. 
" Then," I said, smiling, " there is another great differ- 
ence : the priest is sworn not to marry ; but we believe 
that as St. Peter was a married man, and as St. Paul 
says a bishop ought to be, ministers of the Gospel should 
marry if they choose." He did not smile, but, with a 
shade on his face, said, "Ah ! then, the minister is a cit- 
izen, and has ties to the country like other men." 

So far as I could discover, this gentleman had no dis- 
position to reject Christianity entirely because of the 
disgust felt at much that is palmed upon the people un- 
der its sacred name. After we had talked a good while 
upon the distinction between priest and minister of the 
Gospel, he said that a movement had set in among the 
Piedmontese clergy, many of them having resolved no 
longer to confound the temporal with the spiritual au- 
thority of the Pope, and he thought that the great body 
of them would go with the nation. My first impression 
was that such a party would include two classes — free- 



48 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

thinking patriots and cunning self-seekers; the con- 
scientious Roman priest who believes in the Church 
would be on the other side. It is easy for EngUshmen 
to say that none of the priests do believe in their own 
system ; that it is impossible men can believe so much 
absurdity ; but the fact is, that there is no absurdity in 
which men can not and do not believe : all absurdities 
exist simply because somebody does believe in them. 
There can be no doubt that large bodies of priests, as 
well as laymen, as conscientiously believe in the Church 
of Rome, its dogmas, rites, and traditions, as any man 
in England believes in his Bible. 

Much that I subsequently heard in various places 
modified the first impression as to the elements of 
which the national party among the priests would be 
composed. Besides the honest papist, whose con- 
science would hold him to the Vatican, the free-think- 
ing patriot, and the time-server, there is a fourth class 
— priests who believe in religion, and have enough faith 
in the Church to prevent them from breaking with her, 
or too much fear of consequences to brave the loss of 
all, and the malediction of their brethren ; but, at the 
same time, are sensible of the mental bondage in which 
they are held, doubtful of many things sanctioned by 
Rome, and wishing in their hearts that, without incur- 
ring the hated brand of heresy, they could see their 
way to a Church more resembling the one they find in 
such snatches of the Bible as they know, or such rec- 
ords of the first three centuries as they ever read at 



TUEIN, 49 

first hand. This class is generally represented as nu- 
merous by men who are acquainted with the inner 
places of the priesthood. 

From a gentleman so placed as to have the very best 
political information, I learned that they were daily ex- 
pecting from Rome a Bull excommunicating the king. 
"To you and me," he said, "this may appear nothing" 
(for he was an Englishman) ; " but the king is a Roman 
Catholic, brought up a Roman Catholic, and there is no 
telling what effect it may produce upon his mind." I 
resolved to try what Italians would say upon this sub- 
ject. The first to whom I named it was a thoroughly 
intelligent merchant. He simply laughed at it, and 
said that it might scare a few women in country places, 
but that was all. As to the men, or the people of the 
towns, it would produce no effect upon them whatever. 
" What did I think of it ?" I was free enough to say 
that to me it appeared not so much in the light of a 
political absurdity as of a great wickedness. To curse 
ten millions of people in the name of the Christian re- 
ligion on account of a political movement was surely a 
bad, a horrible action. If it had any effect at all, it put 
the souls of those people outside of the kingdom of 
grace. " Cursing," I said, " is not a Christian work, but 
blessing. Christ and his apostles suffered much at the 
hands of all kinds of men : they fearlessly and tremen- 
dously denounced sin and classes of sinners, exhibiting 
against them the future judgment and just condemna- 
tion of God. But what persecutor or opponent did 

C 



50 ITALY IN TRAlSrSITIOK. 

they ever curse?" He rubbed his hands and said, 
" Ah ! but Rome is used to cursing." 

I next mentioned the subject to a banker in his office. 
He treated it just in the same way. " Excommunica- 
tion was well enough in past centuries. It has been 
tried too often. It has no terrors now; it only dis- 
gusts people to see an attempt to use spiritual arms for 
a political end. Besides, it can have no effect unless it 
be published in the country, and the government will 
take care that it shall not be so." 

Upon this latter statement I looked at first as merely 
a feint to prevent the minds of the people from being af-. 
fected by the excommunication ; but afterward I found 
the " Opinione^'^ the leading journal, strongly maintain- 
ing the position that, by ancient concessions of the See 
of Rome, the house of Savoy was guaranteed for all 
time against any such acts of the pontifical power, and 
could protect itself from the publication of ecclesiastical 
censures among its own subjects. In support of this 
view it produced formidable documentary evidence. 
With this grave argument the " Opinione^'' coupled 
strong representations that, to give the excommunica- 
tion full effect, it would be necessary for the Pope, be- 
fore the conclusion of the year of grace 1860, to pre- 
pare for and eventually to celebrate the greatest cere- 
monial at which Rome had ever presided ; for an ex- 
communication not followed by an auto da fe was only 
a broadside with blank cartridge. The auto da fe 
ought to come if they did not repent within the year, 



TURIN. 51 

and it would have to be performed by publicly burning 
eleven millions of Christians. The only difficulty would 
lie in catching them ! 

Another gentleman to whom I spoke on the question 
of the excommunication said, " Oh, let it come. The 
king is thoroughly prepared. His mind is made up as 
to his course, and he knows what to do. The people 
are prepared, and the ministry are prepared, even to 
the point of having prisons ready for any priests who 
will dare to publish an excommunication of the king." 

As several had said that perhaps the women would 
be frightened, I went into a shop where there were four, 
and no men. Having bought a trifle, I began to talk. 
How they all went off upon the national topics, like as 
many alarm clocks trying which would ring the loud- 
est ! " What a moment for Italy ! What a moment 
for Turin ! What a grand union ! The rest of Italy 
would soon be with them too. Italy was to be a na- 
tion. England had been their friend." After giving 
them time to effervesce, I threw in a little cold water 
in the form of a question — What they would do if the 
Pope should place them all under excommunication. 
They broke out again with as much eagerness as ever, 
mingled with a dash of indignation. '' Let him ! let 
him ! Does he think it will frighten any one ? No, 
not in the present day. Those were tricks for old 
times. How dare he excommunicate the king? If 
the king had done wrong, and he excommunicated him 
for it, there would be something in it ; but the king has 



52 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

been doing right. He has been working for Italy, and 
fighting for Italy; and the people have been doing 
right — they have been trying to become a nation. That 
is their duty, and they will be a nation ; and they are to 
be excommunicated for that ! If the Pope do it, it will 
hurt nobody but himself. K he shut the churches, nev- 
er mind ; he and his priests will be forsaken. Let him 
do it, if he likes." 

I never had, in any part of the world, a more willing 
audience than while I talked to them on Church, and 
priest, and religion, and blessing, and cursing, and after 
a long time bade them farewell, with earnest requests 
to come back again. 

Selecting another shop, which also contained only 
women, apparently of a superior class to the former, I 
began to speak to the mistress. She was pale and very 
dejected ; perhaps a widow lately bereaved, or, more 
probably, one who had long been struggling hard for 
a living. I began, "This is a joyful time in Turin." 
" Yes, for some," she said, with a sigh. "Not for all ?" 
I asked. " Well, for the men, yes ; but for us poor 
women ?" " I suppose you are afraid that the holy Fa- 
ther will excommunicate you all ?" " Oh," she cried, 
" as for that, no ;" and, with rather a pleased look, " I 
should like to see it." " Like to see it ?" I said. " Is 
it not a very terrible thing to be put out of the Chris- 
tian Church by God's vicar upon earth ?" She shrug- 
ged her shoulders, and said, " Oh, that would frighten 



TURIN. 53 

The rest struck in. They declaimed with hearty 
good-will against the wickedness of such a threat, and 
said, if the Pope did it, all the churches would be for- 
saken. Several times I reminded them of the gravity 
of coming under the censure of the holy Father, but al- 
ways provoked only fresh indignation. At last they 
appealed to me, and asked if I really believed that it 
would do them any harm. 

'' Well," I said, " as to us English, we have lain under 
the curse of the holy Father for the last three hundred 
years ; and we have an idea that, after bearing it so 
long, we are not worse off, nor much worse people ei- 
ther, than the Neapolitans and the Romans, who have 
been so constantly favored with his benediction." They 
burst out into a laughing shout : " Oh, only think ! the 
English under the Pope's curse, and the Neapolitans 
with his blessing, and that is the effect of it !" 

A similar current of opinion was strongly indicated in 
the press. Wherever the topic was alluded to at all, it 
was either in a strain of indignation or of ridicule. The 
graver papers argued, and the light ones published cari- 
catures and jokes. Among the latter, the ^^Pasquino^^ 
the Italian "Punch," had a large plate, entitled, "The 
use of a pipe-fusee in 1860." It represented the Jupiter 
of the Vatican upon his own Olympus, surrounded by 
the scarlet-hatted gods. He looked very feeble, but in 
a great rage ; and was hurling down a thunderbolt la- 
beled " Excommunication." Below, a crowd of priests 
were looking on with terror-stricken air, anticipating 



54 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

the effects of the discharge ; but a sturdy urchin, with 
a cocked hat, and cocked nose hke Victor Emmanuel, 
stood laughing, with his pipe in his mouth, and held it 
out so adroitly as just to catch the forked lightning in 
the bowl of the pipe. 

Another paper, ^^ Fischetto^'' represented political ani- 
mals, each taking their own way according to their hu- 
mor ; and there was one " sagacious animal" that had 
bethought itself of the best use for waste paper, and 
was just entering a pork-butcher's door with a great 
hamper of papers labeled " Excommunication," " Cen- 
sure," " Bull," " Rescript," " Protest," and so on. 

On the other hand, the Jesuits here have an organ 
called the ^^ Armo.nia^'^ which does for them in Turin 
what the " Univers^'^ used to do at Paris. It is chiefly 
remarkable from the fact that one of its principal con- 
tributors is a member of the Azeglio family, the head 
of which, the Marquis Roberto, has long been known as 
a liberal writer. Of late years, he had, in some import- 
ant votes, taken sides jather with the reactionary party ; 
but since the last national movement he has reappeared, 
holding a pen as bold as that of any other public man, 
and, in one of his recent writings, does not hesitate to 
make significant allusion to " the giant of Wittenberg," 
and to the artifices of the Council of Trent ; and lays 
down the grand principle that henceforth there are to 
be but two authorities — 

In politics, the Constitution, 
. In religion, the New Testament. 



TURIN. 55 

If the Marquis Azeglio and other statesmen will only 
abide by this axiom, the future destiny of Italy is as- 
sured. Alluding to the Council of Trent, he says, 
'^From that day, progress and liberty always found, as 
they do to-day, their chief foe in the court of Rome, 
which, with subtle priestly forecast, saw that the ripe- 
ness of human reason and the diffusion of popular 
knowledge would assure the demolition of that frail 
and whited clump of stones with which it has deformed 
the edifice of the Church founded by Jesus Christ." 

No wonder that the ^'- Buona Novella^'^ the organ 
of the ancient Italian Church, as represented by the 
Vaudois, should cite these words, in which the modern 
corruptions of Christianity are appealed against, and its 
ancient and holy foundations called to mind. That 
Vaudois Church has existed and suffered simply to sus- 
tain this appeal to the original truth and purity against 
more recent degeneration; but the ^^ Armonid!'' makes 
it a great reproach to the Marquis Roberto d' Azeglio 
to be praised by the ^^ Buona NovellaP "Your fa- 
ther," it says, did so and so, and so and so; "but the 
^Buona NovdloU did not praise him." He did so and 
so, and so and so ; " but the ' Buona Novella' did not 
praise him !" And what becomes of statesmen in the 
future whom Jesuit papers do praise ? 

This Marquis Roberto d' Azeglio is not to be con- 
founded with his more celebrated brother Massimo, or 
with his own son, who is now embassador at our court. 
Among the prodigies of Italy, perhaps the greatest liv- 



56 ITALY IN TKAKSITION. 

ing is Massimo d'Azeglio. He is celebrated as a paint- 
er, celebrated as a novelist, celebrated as a political 
writer, celebrated as a soldier, and, above all, celebrated 
as a statesman. His pictures receive much praise ; his 
pen has exerted as great an influence on the fate of 
Italy as that of any living man. The tales of his sol- 
diering are heroic, and he bears in his body a soldier's 
mementoes. When Italy bowed in sorrow under the 
disaster of Novara, and young Victor Emmanuel had 
sadly to take up the crown which his father, Charles 
Albert, had laid down with a broken heart, the man he 
called to his side as prime minister of the new consti- 
tutional kingdom, setting out on its untried career, 
staggering with recent blows, and shedding many tears 
over the exile of its founder, was Massimo d'Azeglio. 
He guided the nation until he had brought upon the 
stage such men as Cavour and La Marmora ; and then, 
yielding to his love for study and art, went again into 
private life. But in the late commotions, when Milan 
became free, and a governor was to be appointed, the 
Lombards would have at their head the man whom aU 
trusted, loved, and wondered at. 

He, in a late pubhcation, alluding to the religious as- 
pects of the national question, declares that Italy can 
never be Protestant, and tries to throw the blame of 
the Pope's faults upon Austria. He seems to take 
pleasure in setting up the distinction between the spir- 
itual and temporal power, hoping to rescue his country 
from the curse of the one, while yet the Church shall 
retain to itself the other. 



TURIN. 57 

Time only will show men how inevitably temporal 
despotism arises out of spiritual, and will make them 
see that the real groundwork of the tyranny of Austria, 
and of other such countries, is the absolute rule of hu- 
man souls assumed by the Pope. People in England 
are ready to think when they hear an Italian statesman 
profess to distinguish between the spiritual and the 
temporal authority, that it is merely an artifice by 
which he seeks to have his own way for the moment. 
With some it may be, but with many it is perfectly 
sincere. They see the Romish religion existing in 
countries where the Pope has no temporal authority, 
and naturally conclude that it may be so in Italy, for- 
getting that in those countries the people enjoy rights 
secured to them by doctrines totally subversive of the 
Pope's claims, which protect them from ever being 
placed under the full force of the spiritual tyranny. If 
the Pope is the vicar of God, head and organ of an in- 
fallible Church, any power which prevents him from 
bringing all his spiritual authority to bear on the souls 
of men sins against their moral health and eternal 
hopes, as a ruler who prevented the free fall of rain 
and sunshine would sin against physical life. Now 
take the recent decrees of the Inquisition (of which one 
is hereafter inserted), and do they claim more than 
such a perfect possession of a man's soul and principles 
as it is natural a vicar of God and an infallible guide 
to salvation should claim ? Yet is there upon earth a 
government that dare permit such atrocious enactments 

C2 



58 ITALY i:n' transition. 

to operate among its people ? Were one found, could 
society cohere under it ? And if, from the sheer neces- 
sity of warding off social chaos and political ruin, every 
temporal power that ever was, that is, and that can be, 
is compelled to curb and lame the Pope's spiritual 
230wer, how vain is it to protest that it is a sacred thing 
to be respected ! Still, let us not accuse those who do 
so of duplicity. More time and more sorrows will 
teach more truths. 

Another point on which we are liable to think them 
insincere is that of religious liberty. Every Italian of 
the liberal party professes an abhorrence of all persecu- 
tion, and a firm belief in the doctrine that every man 
should be free to worship God according to his own 
conscience. Some of them may hold the French dis- 
tinction between freedom to believe and freedom to 
worship ; but, if so, I never heard any of them allude 
to it. It is the most silly of absurdities ; for no man 
can interfere with the liberty of another to believe 
whatever he likes ; and unless liberty of following and 
proclaiming your belief exists, there is no religious lib- 
erty at all. 

Englishmen, then, finding Italian statesmen avow 
themselves friends of religious liberty, and yet hearing 
every now and then of a Protestant meeting closed by 
public force, or a preacher brought before the tribunals 
and subjected to some sort of penalty, perhaps to im- 
prisonment, lose patience, and regard their professions 
as a mere blind to fool the people of free countries ; but 



TURIN. 59 

this is not just. They sincerely desire to see religious 
liberty established. The practical difficulties in their 
way are great, and not easily understood by us. It is 
not at Turin as in London. With us, the Constitution 
has grown up by degrees, and is in itself the embodi- 
ment and power of national law and usage. At Turin 
the Constitution is a modern statute, placed by one roy- 
al act in the midst of a great body of ancient laws. It 
overshadow^s them ; and, if it live, such as are unfriend- 
ly to it must eventually perish under its shade. For 
the present, however, they stand unrepealed, and some 
of them materially affect religious questions. Local au- 
thorities can apply the old law in the very teeth of the 
Constitution. This is done frequently. And the states- 
men of Italy, bent, above all things, upon teaching the 
people the sacred duty of keeping law, will support a 
procedure, when once invested with legal sanction, 
which they regret as an occurrence, and disapprove as 
to the principles by which it was prompted. 

While all credit for sincerity in this matter ought to 
be accorded, on the other hand, one can not look at the 
facts which constantly arise without feeling that the 
public men confront the priests when temporal motives 
impel them, but do not show much courage when they 
have to carry out their own views as to the rights of 
the human conscience. In the former matters they take 
the course they believe to be for the national interests, 
and leave the priests to rage at will. In the latter they 
temporize and speak of fears, forgetting that all rights 



60 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

are periled if the man himself, the soul within, is not 
held sacred. They might settle the matter at once by- 
simple laws, taking away all show of legal right to per- 
secute, and by clear and express announcement that the 
time had come when the conscience of the poorest Ital- 
ian was to be protected by the whole power of the 
kingdom of Italy. Let the priests but feel that the 
question was settled, that soul-bonds were all broken by 
law, and that the public force, whether armed or judi- 
cial, was no longer at the disposal of the persecutor, 
but ever on the side of the persecuted, and they would 
bow to this order of things much more patiently than 
they can do in several other matters to which they have 
learned to submit. 

It is not, however, to be inferred that in the city of 
Turin sensible restraints exist upon religious liberty. 
There the Protestant churches are as free as Romish or 
Greek ones are with us. The Bible is every where 
hawked and sold, Bible-schools are taught, the press 
issues whatever books any one may please to print, and 
the spirit of the Constitution has free way. Through- 
out the great provincial cities the same state of things 
exists in the main, though now and then the courts of 
Genoa may be found pronouncing a sentence that reads 
much more like Naples than Sardinia. But in country 
places irritating obstructions are often thrown in the 
way of religious liberty, and statesmen are slow to in- 
terfere effectually. 

This subject naturally leads one to think of the Jew 



TURIN. 61 

family Mortara. To them, as to thousands of others, 
whose hberties have been outraged under the papal gov- 
ernment, the free city of Turin has offered an asylum. 
No longer able to endure the scene of their family 
wrongs, they have retired from the Romagna to a place 
where they can dwell under protection* for both con- 
science and person. I called upon them, and met with 
a very kind reception. The first member of the family 
I saw was a little boy of eight or nine years old, whose 
countenance fell the moment I inquired if they had late- 
ly had any news of their little brother at Rome. A 
sister, of perhaps twelve years of age, when asked the 
same question, at once showed tears in her eyes. Both 
said they had not heard any thing for a long time. 
Madame Mortara was pale, sad, and worn with sick- 
ness. She had been ill for four months, having never 
recovered the shock of the midnight visit of the police, 
the abduction of her boy, and her own painful chases 
after him. Poor lady! it was some slight satisfaction to 
be able to tell her the feelings with which Christians in 
England regarded such acts as that ^hich had violated 
her motherly rights, and left her heart so mournful, and 
how entirely they were opposed to the spirit and exam- 
ple of the Christian religion. The name of Sir Culling 
Eardley seemed to be music to her ear, and the little 
book, " The true Story of Edgar Mortara," though in 
an unknown tongue, appeared to be a jewel to her. 
The daughter mentioned a drama which had been got 
up and played here. 



62 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

I could find very little general interest in the case 
among the people. They all blamed the priests, but 
looked on it as rather an ordinary example of what the 
papal government might do ; and thought, if Europe 
generally had known as much as they, the treatment of 
the Mortara family would have been taken as nothing 
remarkable. Signor Mortara himself acknowledged 
that all the Italians condemned the Church for its treat- 
ment of his boy, and yet he seemed more disposed than 
most I met with to speak with respect of the priests, 
and gave them credit for influence among the people so 
long as they confined themselves to religious and avoid- 
ed temporal matters. 

In the midst of the excitement connected with the 
arrival of the news of the voting upon annexation, I 
visited several churches, and found that they were tol- 
erably well attended, and in one or two cases, where 
special ceremonies were proceeding, the congregations 
were really large. Nor were they, as often stated, com^ 
posed entirely of women ; but, in some cases at least, 
there was a very fair proportion of men. It was rare, 
however, to see a man bow — very rare. Occasionally 
one might be found upon his knees, and then he was 
more in earnest than the majority of the women, who 
appeared as much at liberty to make observations while ' 
going through their prayers as if they had been knit- 
ting. 

At first sight, in Romish countries, one is struck with 
the fact that the churches are always open, and that 



TURIN. 63 

persons passing go in for a moment or two, and kneel 
down and repeat a prayer. It is also the custom with 
those who are more devout to spend considerable por- 
tions of time at their private devotions in the church 
during the day. Impressive as this is at first, after a 
while one learns that a pubhc place is not, after all, the 
best scene for private devotion, and that the occasional 
visit to the church, as a substitute for the closet, is a 
poor expedient. Moreover, it gradually comes to mind 
that this is the very thing against which our Lord di- 
rected His express reproof. He teaches us that a pub- 
lic place is for united worship, and that private prayer 
is for the secret place between the worshiper and God. 

When the news of the definite result of the voting 
had been received, and the time of the arrival of Farini 
was fully known, the appearance of the city became 
more and more festive ; the number of banners in- 
creased, signs of preparation for great illuminations 
rose every where, the throng in the street was great, 
men's looks and tones were exultant, and even their 
footsteps seemed to echo the proud word, " We are a 
nation." At night impatient joy could not wait for the 
prescribed moment, but burst out into partial illumina- 
tions. Having witnessed all this, and feeling more in- 
clined for a quiet Sunday than for one of crowds and 
shows, we left Turin for Milan the day before Farini 
was to arrive. 

When in Rome, I read in the ^^Civilta Cattolica^'' 



64 ITALY IN TBANSITION. 

" The population of Turin received Farini and Ricasoli 
in the coldest manner, and that for some reasons which 
we shall name. First. The Turinese side with the Pope, 
and regard with an evil eye the spoliation of his pjov- 
inces. Secondly. The population has a presentiment, a 
prejudice, a something in the mind which says, ' This 
can't last ; this won't last.' Thirdly. The city of Turin 
foresees that, even should it last, it would be to it a very 
heavy loss, because it must necessarily cease to be the 
capital. For these reasons the illumination of the 18th 
of March was a very shabby affair, so that the city 
guard had to go about from house to house, to entreat 
the citizens in the name of the mayor to light up ; and 
then on the Sunday, an attempt being made to repeat 
the illumination, nothing could be got but a very few 
of the smallest lamps, scattered here and there, as many 
as you could count upon your fingers The Tu- 
rinese prefer keeping their money to pay St. Peter's 
pence."* 

This " Civilta Cattolicd!'^ is the one lonely magazine 
which comes into the world at Rome, as the " Giornale 
di RomcC^ is the solitary newspaper. The latter is the 
daily organ of the papal government ; the former the 
fortnightly one of the Jesuits ; and the quotation just 
given is a fair specimen of the sort of news with which 
the one and the other illuminate the people, for whose 
indulgence such dangerous treats are allowed to be pre- 

* **ia Civilta Cattolica'^ for April, 1860, under the head Cronaca 
Contemporanea, 



TURIN. 65 

pared. Besides the lies in the above statement, there 
is a curious blunder, because the 18th of March is first 
mentioned, and then the Sunday. Now the Sunday was 
the 1 8th, so that I can testify that, two days before the 
Sunday came, and before the public illuminations were 
looked for, a great many persons had lit up. When 
next in Turin, the waiter at the hotel, learning that we 
had just come from Florence, asked, 

" Did you see the king ?" 

" Yes, we saw his reception at Florence." 

" Did they receive him well ?" 

" I have seen many public demonstrations, but never 
any thing like it in this world." 

" Oh," he said, " but you should have been here to 
see the arrival of Farini !" 

"The arrival of Farini?" I said. " That was a very 
cold affair." 

He looked at me with blank amazement. I said, 
" When Farini arrived, you gave him a miserably cold 
reception at Turin, and could not get up a respectable 
illumination for him." The man turned all sorts of col- 
ors, and asked me why in the world I said that ; that it 
was an overwhelming demonstration. 

" But," I said, " my account of it must be correct ; I 
read it in Rome, in the Pope's own magazine, the ' Ci- 
viltd Cattolica^ " 

This relieved him very much, and he burst out into a 
laugh. 

Going into a money-changer's shop, he said, looking 



66 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

at the coin, " You have been into the south. Did you 
see the king ?" 

" Yes, I saw his entrance into Florence." 

" Did they receive him well ?" 

" Such a reception as I never saw in this world. It 
was a most wonderful demonstration." 

" And the illuminations ?" he said. 

" The illuminations were surpassingly magnificent." 

" Oh, but you ought to have been here to see the ar- 
rival of Farini some weeks ago. That was the thing to 
see— the reception we gave him ! And we surpass the 
world for illuminations : we have here a great genius in 
that line, a man who is sent for every where." 

I repeated to him my statement to the waiter. Then 
he looked very puzzled and very angry; but at last, 
when I mentioned the '-^Civilta Cattolicd!'^ as my au- 
thority, he laughed as one seldom hears an Italian do — 
a ringing, loud laugh. 

" Oh, that's aU right," he said ; " very glad that the 
^Gimlta Gattolica^ should say so. It is the organ of 
the Jesuits, and, of course, every body will read it as 
meaning exactly the opposite of what it says." 

Will Turin remain the capital of the new Italian king- 
dom ? This is a question which only time can answer. 
Should all Italy become united, it is not possible ; and 
even should the present free states consolidate into one 
kingdom, the probability of a change of capital would 
be very strong. But be the future as it may, the part 
played by Turin in the emancipation of Italy must ever 



TURIN. 67 

make it a city dear to the memory of Italian patriots. 
Here, when every other power in Italy bowed to the 
ground before the foreigner, the standard of independ- 
ence was raised. Here, while elsewhere prince and 
people were divided, the crown, the nobility, and the 
commons united to advance the national cause. Here, 
when the thoughtful and bold were obliged to flee 
from tyrannies, native gr foreign, they found a safe re- 
treat ; and the most illustrious of them, as Farini, Ma- 
miani, Calandrelli, an opportunity to labor in worthy 
spheres for the good of the fatherland. As the birth- 
place of the Constitution and the cradle of modern Ital- 
ian liberties, whatever be the future position of Turin, 
capital or no capital, it will remain in history illumina- 
ted by the record of great events and brilliant names. 



Cjmptfr ID. 



INTO LOMBARD!. 



Ik the railway carriage were two gentlemen, evi- 
dently both of some position in the country : one a tall, 
portly man, very like a North Country English squire ; 
the other old and frail, with a lively countenance and 
French appearance. They were both Piedmontese ; 
but the latter had traveled much, and knew England 
well. Every now and then they regaled themselves 
with a private chat in the Piedmontese dialect, making 
it so unintelligible that it might as well have been 
Turkish. 

The different dialects in Italy are one of the stron- 
gest proofs of the perfection to which the isolating sys- 
tem had been carried by the petty little states that 
have cut the country up between them. They are not 
the mere brogues or accents which we find in different 
parts of the British Islands, but really deserve to be 
called separate dialects ; so much so, that the inhabit- 
ants of one part of the country can converse in the 
presence of those of another with tolerable security 
that they will scarcely be understood ; and as to a for- 
eigner, they put him out of court at once. It will take 
considerable time before the influence of the press, rail- 



12 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

ways, and progressive education renders the speech of 
the country tolerably uniform ; but just as political iso- 
lation and limited reading tend to the multiplication of 
dialects, so certainly do union, periodical literature, and 
frequent intercourse tend to give men the comfort of a 
common speech. 

From our two friends I endeavored to learn some- 
thing of their views on passing events ; but, though 
very cordial and talkative, they kept their opinions out 
of view. They both blew cold on Garibaldi. As to 
Cavour they were dumb. They had a good word for 
the Austrians, had little to say about the prospects of 
the national cause, and, altogether, took their place in 
one's idea as two fine intelhgent friends of things as 
they used to be. The subject of the approaching ex- 
communication had often proved the means of ehciting 
something of men's minds. I tried it upon my opposite 
friend, the tall, strong man, but he evidently felt un- 
comfortable at the thought of it. His was the only 
countenance on which I had read a fear. Perhaps I 
was mistaken ; but my impression was, that a real re- 
ligious fear, such as one might suppose a devout Catho- 
lic to feel, agitated his countenance when reminded of 
the fact that the anathema of the Church against the 
whole nation was now imminent. Still, if he had the 
fear, he had not the courage to avow it. As we sped 
along, the Alps showed gloriously on the left ; and on 
the right, the southern chain below Turin, called " the 
CoUina," veered away to meet the Apennines, leaving 



INTO LOMBAEDY. '^3 

the great plain of the Po to develop itself by degrees, 
stretching on and on toward Lombardy. We hoped to 
catch a good sight of Monte Rosa ; but it would not 
come into view. 

The old gentleman, in talking of the sights of Turin, 
dwelt especially on the armory ; and then, referring to 
London, spoke of the Tower, and our armory there. I 
was obliged to make the confession that I had never 
been in the Tower. 
, " Where do you live then, sir ?" 

" In London." 

" Then you have never been in the Tower ?" 

" It is too true." 

Turning to one of the ladies of the party, he said, 
" Pack him up in a bandbox, and send him home to 
England directly." 

These gentlemen left us at Vercelli, one of the posts 
which attracted some attention during the late war. 
Soon after we arrived at Novarra, the scene of Radet- 
sky's triumph and Charles Albert's fall in 1849. Here 
was a vast multitude of recruits arriving from the neigh- 
borhood of Genoa — tall, strong young fellows, appar- 
ently full of glee, singing national songs with vociferous 
enthusiasm. Into our carriage came three officers. 
What a change of wind from that which had blown 
during the presence of our former companions ! These 
were all Lombards : one a mere youth, full of fire, and 
quite at home the moment he found we were English ; 
the second was a short, sharp fellow, with great eyes ; 

D 



74 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

the third, tall and weather-beaten, silent, strong, and 
self-composed. He had two medals : the one he took 
off, to show us the countenance of our own queen, from 
whom he had received it for the Crimean campaign, 
and inquired of the ladies, "Is she as beautiful as 
this?" To the second our attention was called by 
his companion with pride, for it was the national 
medal for miUtary valor, equivalent to our Victoria 
cross. 

When we approached the Ticino, how they did fire 
up ! Every inch of the way had its own interest. The 
big eyes of the little officer first gleamed, and then 
filled with tears. " Oh !" he said, " you can not tell 
how I feel here. I was a conscript in the Austrian 
army, and deserted to Piedmont, and for two years 
dared not cross this line. How I did feel when the 
day came that I could march across it, not as a cap- 
tured deserter, but in my uniform as an Italian sol- 
dier — a common soldier, but still an Italian soldier, 
in uniform, marching on to Austrian territory !" " He 
was longer than I," he said, pointing, through his tears, 
to his tall, medaled friend — a man of few words. 

"Yes," he said, "I was a deserter too, and for 
eleven years I could never cross this line to see my 
family." 

As we approached Magenta they pointed out, first, 
the positions of the troops ; then the traces of the 
battle, the marks of musket shot and cannon shot, and 
the feeling grew higher every moment. Finally came 



INTO LOMBARD Y. ^5 

the cross raised to commemorate the dead. Deeply 
movjed, I lifted my hat and said, " May God establish 
the liberty of Italy !" The young fellow dropped his 
eyes, overcome. The tall one gave me such a calm, 
grateful look; and the little one seized my hand in both 
of his, and cried out, " Thanks, thanks !" 

"Signori, cannon balls! Signori, grape-shot! Sig- 
nori, a sabre ! Signori, an Austrian sword-belt ! Sig- 
nori, eagles ! Signori, French shot !" SucK was the 
cry of a crowd of urchins who thronged outside the 
railing of the station. Our little friend was out in a 
minute, and bought some rehcs for each of us, and then 
we managed to get a few on our own account. 

They did not blow cold on Garibaldi, though Fanti 
and La Marmora, and especially Cialdini, seemed the 
men of their chief confidence. One hint dropped has 
often recurred to my mind since recent events in the 
south. " Where is Garibaldi ?" " Oh," replied the 
young fellow, "he is in the isle of Capriola, ill ; he has 
a little property there." Then, hfting his brow, and 
pouting his lip, " He is there, if not somewhere else, or- 
ganizing something." 

How they spoke of the king's soldiering ! " He is a 
soldier ! Just a soldier ! The beau ideal of a soldier ! 
Why, at the battle of Palestro," said the little officer, 
" when I was fighting away in the thick of it, whom 
should I see close by me but the king ; and the balls 
were as free for him as for me. Oh, he is a soldier !" 

After the excitement of Magenta was passed, I asked 



76 ITALY IN TKAKSITION. 

our friends if it would not be a very serious matter if 
the holy Father laid the king, and army, and nation 
under his anathema ; but they tossed the excommunica- 
tion off the point of their noses with soldierly contempt, 
and gave me a fair opportunity of telling them of the 
proper work of the Church of Christ. 

Presently they pointed out a convent, saying, " There 
all the devout gentlemen of Milan come to perform 
penance." There was something so comical in the ex- 
pression with which this was said, that one was prompt- 
ed to inquire what they meant. " Oh yes, they come 
here and do penance, and remain in the convent, shut 
up, for forty days." 

" Indeed ! practicing austerities ?" 

" Yes, they pay the monks heavily, and eat and drink 
in princely style, and walk about the garden, and come 
out of their seclusion absolved by abundance of good 
cheer." . 

This was said with so much genuine fun, that, in spite 
of the gravity of the subject, one could not help laugh- 
ing. It gave rise to a long conversation on repentance 
and forgiveness. They soon got out of their depth, and 
looked queer at me, as if one who talked religion could 
hardly be a true man. Still, I thmk, the honest fellows 
had a sort of instinct that one did mean something ; 
but off they broke again to this question of the prandial 
penance. " Oh, you can buy any thing ! If you want 
to eat what it is a sin to eat, pay, eat, and be innocent ! 
If you want to marry a person it is a sin to marry, pay, 



INTO LOMBAEDY. V7 

wed, and the blessing of the Church be upon you ! It 
is all a shop." 

" And what is indulgence ?" I said. 

" Oh, indulgence ! that is one shop more." 

"But what is it?" 

One looked at another, and their theology was hard 
set. The young fellow attempted an explanation, but 
stopped when he got to purgatory. However, enough 
was said to open the way for words about the Redeem- 
er's great ransom for our souls. The night fell, the 
walls of Milan were passed, and we parted great friends. 



MILAN DURING THE REJOICINGS FOR THE 
ANNEXATION. 



As we were driving along the rather sombre streets 
of Milan, they suddenly flashed with torchlights, and 
bands of music and popular acclamations swelled upon 
the ear. A vast crowd, escorting something that seem- 
ed like a procession, swept past in joyous excitement. 
It proved that the students from Pavia had just arrived 
in the town, preparatory to great rejoicings on the mor- 
row ; and that this public reception was only a small 
part of the enthusiasm which was venting itself. Al- 
ready, since the battle of Magenta, there had been some 
hundred illuminations or more ; but to-morrow was to 
witness an exceedingly grand one, intended to com- 
memorate the issue just achieved, the union of Central 
Italy with the northern state ; and, at the same time, 
to be the anniversary of the five days of March, 1848, 
when the Milanese rose and expelled their Austrian 
masters. As in Turin, however, they had not patience 
enough to wait for the day fixed for the great illumina- 
tion, but a night or two previously many had been com- 
mencing on their own account ; and, what was worse, 
the mob had shown a desire to dictate to those who 
did not feel inclined to do so. They had passed sever- 

D 2 



82 ITALY IK TEAKSITION. 

al houses, shouting out, " Light up ;" and carried it so 
far as to conxpel the poor dames of a convent to obey 
their wishes, equally against their habits and their po- 
litical predilections. The governor gave prompt orders 
that no such interference should be repeated, and him- 
self took the pains to wait upon the nuns, and express 
his regret for the annoyance to which they had been 
subject. I afterward found at Rome that the " Civilta 
CattoUca''^ laid grievous complaints against him and the 
northern government generally for their disregard of 
hberty in allowing the nuns to be so ill used. They 
added that, notwithstanding his visit and promises, the 
insult had been repeated ; in consequence of which, the 
ladies had been obHged to close their schools and leave 
the town. So sensitive is Rome to any infraction of the 
liberty of Rome. 

We found that our hotel was within a few hundred 
yards of the Cathedral. The Corso is not a wide, but 
a lofty street, the end of which opens upon the giant 
form which even at night shed upon us, as we gazed 
from our balcony, a sense of the sublime. Immediately 
opposite us stood a grandiose modern church, which an 
overgrown dome prevents from being a beautiful little 
building ; and its white color and dapper columns help 
to render the contrast with the prodigious mass and 
mysterious tracing of the Cathedral all the more forci- 
ble. That night the Corso was as animated a street as 
could be found in the world. Little remnants of the 
great procession now and then streamed by with flags. 



MILAN. 83 

and torches, and drums. The people shouted and sang, 
but apparently with the most perfect good temper and 
order. The hum of the passers has an unmistakable 
note of pleasure — like that of bees in honey time. A 
stranger, utterly ignorant of the state of the popular 
mind, must feel that he had fallen upon a day when 
men's hearts were rejoicing. 

There is Milan Cathedral at last ! How wonderful it 
is ! For the first time in my life, my previous imagina- 
tion is outdone by a stone building. The first view of 
the exterior of St. Peter's had disappointed me. With 
this it is just the reverse. Coming upon it from the 
narrow Corso, and seeing it in the shade, and feeling its 
growing vastness, and watching its forest of pinnacles, 
its wilderness of tracery, delicately marked against the 
gray sky, the impression sinks deeper and deeper into 
the mind, " Wonderful ! Wonderful ! What a head was 
that which gave birth to this conception! How it must 
have glowed as the great temple sprang forth within 
it, holding up these pinnacles to heaven, and shedding 
down this sense of grandeur upon earth ! Oh, to rear 
up living temples in the souls of men which would 
transmit to coming ages, not the impression of one's 
hand or skill, but the spirit of true worship and the im- 
age of God !" So one goes on, musing, wondering, and 
enchanted, until \hQ facade is reached. After a look or 
two at this, one would rather not have seen it. It is 
vast, but only vast ; neither beautiful, nor uniform, nor 
grand, nor delicate; it is just the caparisoned Goliath of 
gables. 



84 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

The murmur of the awaking nation swells around this 
stern old Cathedral, and the night light falls mystically 
upon it, and one thinks there of the days of early Chris- 
tianity, which some of its traditions recall, and the suc- 
ceeding times of gradual decline, up to the recent point 
of spiritual degradation and temporal woe, and now the 
great and uncertain future, of which that hum in the 
city is the voice whose words no ear can tell. Those 
old walls and their predecessors have seen the gradual 
corruption of religion, and the successive wrongs and 
oppressions of Italy. They now hear the shouts of a 
hopeful uprising. But what is to be the end ? 

Sauntering back full of these thoughts, I observed a 
coffee-house crowded with students, and, of course, went 
in. The poor fellows seemed as merry and simple as 
children, with their arms round one another, laughing 
and talking in all the heyday of a new existence. They 
had papers to read, freedom to speak their minds, and a 
country to call their own ! An Enghshman might have 
wondered what they had to make them so happy ; but 
where these three things are strange, what boons they 
appear ! 

Instead of heady drinks, which one might expect a 
multitude of excited youths to order if one were in En- 
gland, or the swilling of beer, which one would certain- 
ly see in Germany, nothing was called for but innocent 
coohng drinks — a little orange- water, or something of 
the sort, and very rarely a glass of liqueur. 

Taking up one of the papers, which lay in large num- 



MILAN. 85 

bers round tlie room, I saw, in great letters, these words : 
" We are a nation ! We are eleven millions ! For the 
first time since ancient Rome, we can to-day use the 
words, 'We are a nation!' Italians have learned to 
unite. Again we cry, ' We are eleven millions !' " and 
this strange joy of their new-found nationality seemed 
to throb in the veins of every man you met with. 

What a view that Avas from the balcony of the hotel 
on the Sunday morning ! The fronts of the houses gen- 
erally have balconies. Every one was covered with 
crimson. From the windows flags were streaming, the 
bright Italian tri-color — green, and red, and white ; hav- 
ing the advantage of fine material, exquisite dye, and 
the Italian light. From every pinnacle of the wondrous 
Cathedral the tri-color banner was streaming ; and away 
up in the blue bosom of heaven, from the highest point 
of the spire, a broad mass of red, and white, and green 
was floating in the air. The roll of the drum announces 
the National Guard; their light blue plumes form a 
moving pavement, the flags from the windows a waving 
canopy, and the background is the bannered Cathedral. 
Had one planned a sight-seeing journey, it would have 
been impossible to plan for a sight like that. 

Amid the joy, the noise, the hurry of the streets, we 
make our way to the Swiss Church. There is no con- 
fusion. The people are all wonderfully civil ; and such 
as I manage to get into chat with only need to be set a 
going, and they will talk to any extent, and seem really 
pleased that a foreigner should interest himself in them. 



86 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

In the Swiss Church we found a good congregation, 
composed chiefly of well-dressed people, with a good 
number of French soldiers. At the close of the service, 
Mr. Swalb, the French Protestant chaplain to the troops, 
accompanied us. It was but a few minutes before we 
came upon an open space, the Piazza di Castello — a vast 
square, larger than any thing in London but the parks. 
In the midst stands a great altar, on one side a high plat- 
form erected before a building. Around it the Nation- 
al Guards are drawn up with military pomp, and every 
where banners are streaming in all the colors of the 
rainbow, and especially the favorite tri-color. At the 
altar priests are celebrating mass, and are going to con- 
secrate the colors of the National Guards. Poor priests! 
Poor blessing ! I saw them blessing the trees of Kber- 
ty in Paris in 1848, and here they are blessing colors to 
be borne against the Pope and his aUies ! If I were a 
priest it would go hard with me to do that ! 

It is not a worthy spectacle either on the side of the 
Church or of the State. The churchman is there to do 
an act which, if he be sincere, is odious and sacrilegious 
to his conscience ; and the state is there to command, 
or at least invite, apparent sanction from those against 
whom it is compelled to struggle for existence. The 
whole afiair gives one an uncomfortable feeling of hol- 
low and supple consciences. Still there had been some 
little show of sturdiness among the Milanese priests. 
On Friday, when the news of annexation came, all the 
church-bells were ordered to ring. Most of them struck 



MILAN. 87 

up ; but the quick ear of the Milanese soon discovered 
that one was dumb. The great bell of their old Cathe- 
dral, of which they are so justly proud, had no voice to 
celebrate the spoliation of the Pope. The chief priest 
had taken upon himself to forbid it. The people rushed 
into the Cathedral, and found that the ropes were truss- 
ed up. They were very angry, but committed no vio- 
lence. They got the ropes down, and made the great 
bell ring out with a will, and ring on till a late hour in 
the night, proclaiming the joy of Italy at the reduction 
of papal power. This, however, appeared to create a 
division among the priests ; for an address was inserted 
in the papers, professing to emanate from a considerable 
number of the Milanese clergy, denouncing, in unmeas- 
ured terms, the unnatural conduct of men who had been 
the ready servants of Austria while inflicting all kinds 
of degradation on their fellow-countrymen, but who 
now refused to participate in the national happiness, 
and even turned the great Cathedral itself into a means 
of insulting the cause that was dear to every Italian 
heart. Under the frocks of priests, in many instances, 
the heart of the patriot beats instead of that of the mere 
Romish ecclesiastic. 

Into the vast crowd now before me I plunged, going 
from one part of it to another, and talking right and 
left, to man and woman, old and young, rich and poor. 
The worst is, that the poor people talk a dialect which 
one can hardly understand. Every where they seemed 
pleased to converse with a foreigner; and the feeling 



88 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

toward the English was good. As to the terrors of the 
Pope and the excommunication, they did not show a 
trace of them. Women who looked as if they were 
little above the laboring class said, " Among the lowest 
class there may be a little fear, but among all others it 
is too late for that." A sedate man waggishly said, 
" It is reported that the king will put on a heavy pro- 
hibitory duty, and order that the Bull of Excommuni- 
cation shall not pass the frontier without paying." An 
intelligent, thoughtful-looking man of about twenty-five 
turned to two friends Vv^ho seemed like " fast" young 
gentlemen, and said, " We must all become Protest- 
ants." This was the first time I had heard such an ex- 
pression from an Italian ; I had not named Protestant- 
ism, and it took me by surprise. The dandies were 
startled. I said to them, " I suppose many of you think 
that a Protestant means one who believes nothing, and 
is a sort of Atheist ; or, at least, that it means some 
new religion invented in the last century or so." This 
fixed the attention of the young fellows, who wanted to 
know in what it differed from such representations. I 
said, " The meaning of Protestantism is simply this — 
that in the course of time Christians, looking back to 
the primitive Church as traced in the Word of God, 
and in the early creeds and histories, became aware that 
great corruptions had crept in — corruptions derived 
from the old paganism of Rome and other countries 
that had been imperfectly Christianized, and gradually 
mingled with newly-invented doctrines, just as in the 



MILAN. 89 

recent case of the Immaculate Conception. When they 
had become profoundly convinced that, to preserve 
Christianity at all, these abuses must be removed, and 
a return be made to the old beliefs and observances es- 
tablished by our Lord himself, they protested against 
the imposition upon Christians of any doctrines and 
practices not taught in the Bible, and especially against 
all teaching that was repugnant to it ; but, protesting 
against those abuses, they held, and do sacredly hold, all 
the articles of the Christian faith as taught by Christ 
and by His apostles." 

The thoughtless youths looked downright uneasy. 
The subject was too serious for them; and besides, 
they seemed rather frightened with what sounded like 
heresy. Still they said nothing. Their elder compan- 
ion replied very gravely, " Oh yes, I know all about it ; 
that is the thing for us. Italy will never be right until 
we have that. I have books, and I have read them, 
and I know f^ and, turning to his comrades, he said, 
" You must read ecclesiastical history. You must read 
the YangeloP 

To one .after another I spoke, wondering when I was 
to find the sincere defender of the Church of Rome — 
such as one would pick up in any crowd in Ireland ; 
but he did not come. At last I found a very old lady. 
She was very civil, and we had a long chat ; and she 
appeared surprised that a gentleman should take an in- 
terest in talking to her about the religious aspects of 
the matter ; and she smiled just as pleasantly as any of 



90 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

them at the idea of the Pope's excommunication doing 
any harm. It was plain she did not go deep into mat- 
ters — took them as they came — was drifting on toward 
the close of her voyage in the easy way so many go, 
with their faces up the stream, looking backward, and 
thinking little of the rapids which they are nearing, and 
of the great fall down which their bark is about to go. 

The only way I could account for the fact that none 
of those I spoke to showed any thing like a disposition 
to defend the Church, was by supposing that all those 
who would come to such a fete were persons who did 
not care for the authority of Rome. 

After the mass was over the troops passed in proces- 
sion to the platform at the end of the square, on which 
were standing a brilliant crowd of officials ; and here 
occurred a ceremony which, in the distance, reminded 
me of that wonderful scene under the Arc de Triomphe 
in Paris, in April, 1848, when Lamartine and his breth- 
ren of the Provisional Government sat to review the 
army and the National Guard for twelve successive 
hours, having armed men marched past them, and re- 
ceiving the oaths of allegiance to the repubhc from the 
commanding officers. A figure every now and then 
appeared in the distance, as if delivering some official 
words, and one naturally asked if that was Massimo 
d'Azeglio, the great and popular Governor of Milan. 
The people around me thought it was ; but he was away 
that day in Turin, sharing with the king and Cavour 
the reception of Farini. 



MILAN. 91 

As the different banners streamed by in the proces- 
sion, there was one that affected the crowd deeply — a 
brilliant banner draped with crape; and, as I asked 
what this sign of mourning meant, they said, dropping 
the voice, " Venezia! VeneziaP^ It was the tone men 
use in the sick-room of a friend. Then came a long 
streamer all black, with the lion, emblem of Venetia, 
emblazoned upon it ; and the feeling among the people 
was intense. 

I was greatly impressed with the order and good 
temper of this crowd. Whether on the Piazza or in the 
streets, whether in the height of an exciting moment or 
at the ordinary times, thorough good-nature prevailed. 
Any thing like drunkenness or misconduct was not to 
be seen. 

When the night came the city lighted up with won- 
derful splendor, and the glow of the lamps, the waving 
of the banners, the perpetual rush along the streets, the 
plumes and the helmets, the swell of music, all seemed 
but as the bees and butterflies to an orchard in blos- 
som ; when the huge Cathedral flashed out with lines 
of light all round its frame, cunningly mingling with the 
tracery, and embeUishing every pinnacle. It was such 
a sight as one's eye had never seen before, and in the 
world could not see elsewhere. At a certain moment, 
the whole vast edifice, spire, roof, body, blushed in the 
richest crimson. This changed to green, and again to 
white. About this there was a mystery, a grandeur, 
and a beauty united, in the presence of which all recol- 



92 ITALY IN TRANSITIOIS". 

lections failed to offer a comparison. The first fainter 
tints of the crimson, as it came out upon the warm 
white marble of the Cathedral, did remind me of that 
rose blush that may be seen covering the mountains on 
the Asiatic side of the Red Sea at sunset; but then, 
when this became intensified several times, with all the 
fret-work of the great Cathedral in the midst of it, with 
the spotless sky behind, and a waving world of ban- 
ners and plumes over, among, and below, it was, for 
witchery of the beautiful and the sublime, something 
unique. 

Is it all a dream? Am I not at Notting Hill, having 
fallen asleep over a volume upon unfulfilled prophecy ? 
Is this a real eye that is gazing and gazing? It is even 
so. That is the second Cathedral in the Romish world, 
waving with joy-banners, gleaming with joy-lamps, and 
flushed with successive colors, as if emulating the north- 
ern lights, and all to celebrate the disruption of the 
Pope's kingdom ? It is a sight to gaze at, to ponder, 
and to forget no more ! 

May brighter lights than these shine from within all 
the cathedrals ere long ! 

This had been a strange Sunday. The only two 
Sundays the excitement of which it recalled to me were 
the first I spent in India, going with Mr. Haswell among 
the crowd at the swinging feast ; and that Sunday at 
Paris, during the battle of June, in 1848, when, passing 
through the ranks of Cuirassiers into the little chapel in 
the Rue Royale, we held our service amid the distant 



MILAK. 93 

sound of cannon, and came out again through crowds 
of Cuirassiers, with cannon still roaring. 

As one lay looking back on the scenes of the day, 
comparing the ideas of the different persons conversed 
with, remembering how lately one might have suffered 
for speaking freely on religious topics, and hearing the 
ceaseless hum, frequently varied by bursts of singing 
and music, it was impossible to render an account of 
one's own feelings. On the whole, it was a state of 
puzzled enjoyment. As to the past, there has been this 
great change— an oppressed people is now standing up 
free; and where intolerance had been dethroned, the 
Word of God is not bound. As to the future, who will 
interpret it ? That many-voiced hum is its forerunning 
note. Its tones are those of human passion — hatred of 
the tyrant, exultation for freedom — new hope of coming 
strength and victory. Making all abatement, these feel- 
ings, in the main, are right and laudable. And He who 
guides tempestuous elements till their rage ends in the 
refreshment of nature, can overrule this rush of earthly 
feeling, and silently work out for Italy what He wrought 
out for England, amid the darker torrents of passion 
that drove on Henry VIII. to coUision with Rome. 

A merchant on whom I called early the next morn- 
ing was slow and sad, with little to say, although court- 
eous as a man could be. He complained that, what 
with the failure of the silkworm and the commotions 
of the time, business was sorely depressed ; and told 
me that the news had arrived that Savoy was now 
ceded to France. 



94 ITALY IN TEANSITIOisr. 

Another was as lively and cheerful as the former was 
depressed. What a time I had come to Milan at ! Had 
I seen the rejoicings yesterday ? Was it not delight- 
ful ? What did I think of the behavior of the people ? 
England had taken a lively interest in their welfare, 
and, ever since Villafranca, had been their best friend. 
Presently his son, a very fine young man, joined us ; and 
when the religious aspects of the new state of things 
were alluded to, took up the points, put questions, and, 
when I had observations to make, urged me on. In 
came a bright-looking, gray-haired friend, who heartily 
welcomed an English visitor. The former conversation 
continued uninterrupted. " I suppose," I said, " you 
Italians think we English are Atheists, and believe 
nothing ?" The new-comer replied, " Nowadays we 
know a great deal better. Tour nation has more relig- 
ion, better morals, and more conscience than the Cath- 
olic nations." 

" Ay," struck in the young man ; " how Sunday is 
sanctified in England !" 

While we were in the height of discourse, in came a 
brother of my host and a lady ; and it was pleasantly 
explained that this being the day of his patron saint, 
his friends were paying him visits of congratulation. 
Unfortunately, the brother talked English, and this cir- 
cumstance brought our conversation to a close, for none 
of the others understood it ; and, like my Italian, his 
English was club-footed, and hobbled sadly. 

In a book-shop near the Cathedral I saw large pla- 



MILAN. 95 

cards announcing a pamphlet under the title of " Anti- 
Christ is the Pope : Proved from the Holy Scriptures 
and the Holy Fathers, by Robert Fleming," and pro- 
fessing to be published in London. It was plain, at the 
first glance, that the printing and paper were not En- 
glish ; and, when one came to read the pamphlet, inter- 
nal evidence showed that, though the author had avail- 
ed himself of Fleming's thoughts, he wrote in a much 
more telling style, and must have been at work within 
the last few months, from allusions to passing events. 
In the same shop was also announced a pamphlet, " The 
Protestant Rule of Faith ;" and another pamphlet on 
the question of excommunication, showing the conduct 
of the Republic of Venice when laid under interdict by- 
Pope Paul Y., and urging Italians to similar firmness in 
the event of the court of Rome proceeding to repeat 
the outrage. In this the writer endeavors to keep up 
respect for the spiritual authority of the Pope while res- 
olutely combating his right to excommunicate for polit- 
ical reasons, and urging courses inconsistent with his 
own doctrine of the headship of the Pope in spiritual 
matters. 

" Have you any Bibles ?" I said to the man ; and two 
or three visitors looked up at the question. 

" No," was his reply. 

" Any New Testaments ?" 

" Oh yes." He pulled down a musty volume, which 
was one of eight. Instead of a Testament, it was a 
Commentary upon it, without the text. 



96 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

" Have you no other New Testament ?" 

" None." 

" Have you any history of modern Rome in Italian ?" 

He threw his head aside, as if this was a new ques- 
tion which he wanted to revolve ; but the answer came 
out, as I knew very well it must do, " No." 

When I inquired of this man what the effect would 
be if they were all placed under excommunication by 
the Pope, he burst into a humorous laugh, and the cus- 
tomers turned round and smiled. " If the Pope does 
it," said the bookseller, " he will do it not against us, 
but against himself. We want to see whether he will ; 
for then we shall know whose vicar he is. He says that 
he is the vicar of Christ : now we know what sort of 
works Christ did — He blessed men, and saved souls ; 
and if we see the Pope cursing men, cursing a whole 
Idngdom because they have done the best thing they 
ever did, and try to make their souls be lost, we know 
whose work that is, and we shall know whose vicar he 
is." 

I found that another bookseller had a Bible. It was 
Martini's, and the price was £2 Ss. (sixty francs). He 
had also a copy of the Vulgate, in two beautiful quartos, 
for about the same. I told him that we had New Test- 
aments at fourpence a piece, and that they were circu- 
lated by the million. He seemed to have had some ink- 
ling of such a state of things, but an old gentleman in 
the shop stared as if I talked very strangely. Here 
again we got into a long conversation on national and 



MILAN. 91 

religious Subjects. On the former the man was free 
enough, but on the latter it appeared evident that he 
had a strong leaning to the Pope and the Church, yet 
he would not express it. He also had never heard of a 
history of modern Rome in the ItaUan language. 

Another, who appeared to sell Catholic books, talk- 
ed warmly about the distinction between the spiritual 
and the temporal power, rejecting the latter, but pro- 
fessing to hold the former in the greatest regard. How- 
ever, when brought to the practical test of what he 
would do with the excommunication, he made the state- 
ment that at least thirty priests, from different parts of 
the surrounding country, had told him, in his own shop, 
that if it was sent to them by the bishop, they would 
not publish it. 

It was surprising that when such books as I have 
mentioned were publicly advertised in the shops, and 
when the papers were full of attacks upon priests and 
Pope, many of them calculated to do nothing but excite 
rancor, one could not find a Bible in any accessible place. 
By the help of previous information, I did find, away in 
a back street, up a few pair of stairs, in a poor house, a 
few boxes containing Bibles, and any one who had the 
same information and the same perseverance might buy 
them. There were also some hawkers employed in the 
surrounding country ; but surely it would not be much 
if, in such a city as Milan, the Bible Society went to the 
expense of taking a good shop, in a good situation, and 
having the Word of God put obviously within the reach 

E 



98 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

of every man in the city. The person ia whose charge 
the Bibles were seemed an honest, sensible man, thor- 
oughly aware of the comparatively little influence this 
obscure mode of circulation could have, and wishing to 
see it supplemented by something more like a public 
endeavor. 

Through Milan runs a canal, on the bridges over 
which one is reminded of a curious passage in the histo- 
ry of the city. One of its old dukes, being placed under 
excommunication by the Pope, received the Bull by the 
hands of two delegates. He heard it, and had them 
driven in state until they reached the bridge. They 
did not know why, but found their carriage suddenly 
stopped on the bridge, with the water at hand, while 
they were surrounded by the guards of the duke, who 
was a tyrant and a desperado. " My lords," said the 
duke, " whether would you prefer, to eat or drink ?" 
They looked at the water, looked at the guards, and 
said, " Here is too much water to drink ; we shall pre- 
fer to eat." " Very well, you shall have your choice," 
he said. The Bull was produced, its parchment cut up 
in pieces, and the dignitaries of Rome were forced to 
eat it, and also the leaden seals by which it was authen- 
ticated. Yet this rebellious duke and the Pope were 
afterward good friends. 

The present ruler of Milan is of a very different stamp 
— the celebrated Massimo d'Azeglio. He is tall and 
thin, with a countenance upon which painful thinking 
has left an expression of solemnity verging on sadness. 



MILAN. 99 

He carries one of those select heads, built for broad 
ideas, which more than clearly, impressively announce a 
master intellect ; not merely an able man, but one of 
those whose path is high up, and his view far forward. 

It is very touching to hear such a man say, " Our 
poor Italy ! I trust that blessings are in store for her 
at last. She is a country that God has been pleased 
terribly to chastise for ten centuries and more. We 
must hope that He now judges the correction to be suf- 
ficient, and that He is about to let us see better days. 
But I always tell our people that if we are to have a 
happier lot, we must endeavor to merit it at His hand." 
In him, such expressions come from the depths of a 
great and earnest soul, that has long been burdened 
with the sufferings of his country ; and that, much as 
he has done to promote the present state of mind, by 
which Italians are hailing one another all over the coun- 
try as brethren, would view the result, not as his handi- 
work or that of his school, but as the movement of the 
Hand which does command nations. 

From Milan we made a day's run up the Lake of 
Como, highly enjoying the beauty of the scenery by land 
and water. It was too early in the spring for the hills 
to have put on their verdure, and yet the grandeur and 
the beauty were extreme. On those waters and in the 
town the peaceful fame of Volta appeared to be entire- 
ly drowned by the thundering renown of Garibaldi. 
The honest boatmen, in their terribly difficult dialect, 
delighted to dwell upon the events of the last summer ; 



100 ITAI.Y IN TRANSITION. 

and how the fame of Garibaldi passed from mountain 
to mountain, and lake to lake ; and how the Austrians 
were perplexed, and the people excited ; and how little 
boys left their homes in crowds to join the hero's stand- 
ard — their fathers and their mothers telling them that 
they would be of no use, but afterward finding that they 
had fought like soldiers! Some ladies were quite as 
enthusiastic as the boatmen, pointing out, step by step, 
the way that Garibaldi's forces came down the hills, 
the posts to which he scattered them, the points at 
which they opened upon the Austrian pickets, and then 
the triumphant conclusion, when the strong enemy made 
an ignominious retreat, carrying his splendid artillery 
away to Camerlata. How delighted they did seem to 
be told that even in London they might see coffee- 
houses by the name of Garibaldi, and Garibaldi pale- 
tots ; and for the boatmen especially it was a notable 
fact that in London they might see advertised " Gari- 
baldi pipes." 

This enthusiasm for the hero we found, however, by 
no means universal in the country. One was very often 
told that Garibaldi was no statesman, that he was not a 
sound and safe politician, and several items of informa- 
tion of that sort ; and even in reference to his soldierly 
qualities it would sometimes be said, " It is true he is a 
wonderful soldier, but then we have so many of them." 
Yet, with all this, it was plain that every Italian talked 
of his name with a certain pride and confidence, and 
those who said most by way of drawback would often 



MILAN. 101 

wind it up with the admission, " After all, when the 
work of hunting the Austrians is to be done, there is 
nobody like Garibaldi." 

Here we may relate a story from the " Official Docu- 
ments." It was on the 4th of August, 1849, shortly 
after Rome had fallen under the arms of the French, 
that about twenty people were gathered round a farm- 
house in im village of Mandriole, near Ravenna. They 
were laborers waiting for their week's pay from the 
steward of the Marquis Guiccioli. A phaeton came up, 
in which a woman was lying beside the man who drove. 
He did not look an ordinary man ; but the woman was 
deadly ill. A doctor happened to be there : he felt her 
pulse, and declared that she was in the last stage of 
fever. The owner of the house had her carried into a 
room and laid upon a bed. A little water was brought 
to her ; she tasted it, and died in her husband's arms. 

Then that strong man lifted up his voice and wept. 
It was the voice of Garibaldi. It was his Agnes who 
lay there ; he gave vent to what even a papal official 
calls " outbursts of inconsolable grief" — charged the 
family to give that body an honorable burial. What- 
ever may have been the words, the tone would say, 
" My Agnes was the heroine wife of a hero." Then he 
fled from the eyes of the astonished peasants, fled they 
knew not whither. Into the jaws of the Austrians ? 
Into the claws of the Pope ? No ; but under the wing 
of Providence, reserved to reappear at Varese, and Co- 
mo, and Sicily. 



102 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

The peasants at once foresaw that the simple fact of 
their having allowed Garibaldi's wife to die upon their 
bed would expose them to the vengeance of the papal 
government, and, in hope of escaping, they buried the 
body in a field. But the Delegate Lovatelli makes 
haste to tell the most reverend ruler at Bologna, Bedini, 
that he has sent police, and had the two brothers who 
owned the house put in prison, and that the court was 
preparing for their trial. The men were accused of 
murdering the wife of Garibaldi ; and, as no case could 
be made up, it would seem that Bedini applied to the 
Austrians to know what punishment they were to suf- 
fer. To their credit be it said that this reply was re- 
turned : " From the proceedings of the civil and crim- 
inal court of Ravenna against the brothers Stephen and 
Joseph Ravaglia, of Mandriole, on suspicion of murder- 
ing the wife of Garibaldi, it proves that the proceedings 
have justly broken down ; and, considering that the 
momentary reception afibrded to the fugitive husband 
and wife in the house of the Ravaglia was from a mere 
sense of humanity, and took place before the notifica- 
tion of the 5th of August had been issued, that can not 
be cited as having any bearing upon the act ; therefore, 
the better to meet your honored communication of the 
3d, lettered M. A. N. 560, in which you beg me to ex- 
pedite this matter, I directly order the Delegate of Ra- 
venna to discharge the brothers Ravaglia from prison."* 

* Documents part ii., p. 608-610. See the translations, Append- 
ix A. 



MILAN. 103 

In returning from Como, I called the attention of a 
priest who had just put up his breviary by making some 
inquiries, as we passed Monza, respecting the convent 
mentioned in the " Promessi Sjoosi^^ of Manzoni. He 
at once took up the subject, and talked with literary 
pleasure of the scenes of that beautiful story which lay 
just about us. All conversations in Italy, at the time, 
gradually turned to the questions of the day. He 
thought that the European powers must interpose to 
uphold the throne of his hoUness. They had such in- 
terests at stake, his independence was to them all a 
matter of such vital importance, that they could not be 
indifferent ; in fact, his position was necessary to the 
Catholic world, a thing not to be compromised on any 
account. Even Russia and Prussia had a heavy stake 
in the maintenance of his temporal authority ; and in 
1848, Prussia had been one of the first powers to inter- 
pose, and would doubtless do so again. Poor fellow ! 
he used the word " Catholic" so frequently, and with 
such sonorous emphasis, that I could not help telling 
him that with us it had a very different meaning from 
" Roman." At first he seemed unable to imagine what 
was meant. I said the two words were as irreconcil- 
able as " triangle" and " circle." At this he simply 
gaped. " The one means ' universal,' a Church in which 
every Christian of every age and nation, who believes 
in and follows Christ, is recognized, whatever errors of 
opinion or forms he may have ; the other means a par- 
ticular church, which would fain be empress of all oth- 



104 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

ers, and holds accursed all Christians, good or bad, who 
will not absolutely submit to her." 

He then began a long, rapid, and very clever oration, 
uttered with as perfect connection and fluency as if it 
came from a professor's chair. He showed how, after 
the first council, the Council of Jerusalem, where St. 
Peter had originally established his see, he removed it 
to the city of Antioch, thence to Rome ; how, wherever 
he went, he carried with him the centre of the Christian 
world; how he finally established it in the imperial 
city, which, in his day, was determined upon as the 
head of Christendom. Therefore the matter was of 
apostolic origin, and in all the ancient councils, and fa- 
thers, and creeds, had been recognized as of Divine 
foundation. 

It was plain enough that this was meant for a final 
deliverance, and he looked a very strange sort of disap- 
pointment when he heard it quietly said, "The point 
was never started in the most ancient councils, and 
' Roman' is not to be found in one of the ancient creeds. 
The early councils were summoned, not in Rome, but 
elsewhere ; not by the Bishop of Rome, but by the em- 
perors or others ; the Bishop of Rome did not preside ; 
and it was only in comparatively modern times that any 
thing like a council was held in Rome, or that the word 
' Roman' found its way into any creed. In the ancient 
creeds you have ' catholic Church,' but never 'Roman.' " 

" Yes, yes," he said, " we have catholic, apostolic, and 
Roman too." 



MILAN. 105 

" In all the ancient creeds ?" 

" To be sure." 

"In the Apostles' Creed?" 

''Most certamly, yes. In the Apostles' Creed, of 
course you have." 

''You have the Breviary in your pocket: will you 
just do me the favor to look ?" 

He pulled it out without" a doubt upon his mind, 
turned to one place, seemed puzzled ; turned to an- 
other, looked a good, long, conclusive look, then lifted 
up his spectacled eye, and said with a good grace, " It 
is not here." It was plain that a new fact had come 
before him. 

He then tried the old plan of talking me down ; and 
as his Italian ran like a mill-race, and mine came like 
liquid from a bottle with part of the cork in the neck, 
my poor argument had small chances. Still I did 
manage to make him hear me say that creeds and 
forms, however good, did not make Christians; that 
there must be the Word of God to instruct, and His 
Spirit to regenerate. He then broke into a vehement 
denunciation of the unchristian wickedness of the peo- 
ple generally, laying to that score the fact of their en- 
mity against the Pope and Church ; if they were only 
such Christians as I had mentioned, all would go well. 
"How can we," I said, "expect a population to be 
Christian, when, perhaps, they have never seen the Word 
of God in their lifetime, and scarcely any of them has 
ever read a chapter of it ?" To this he assented, ap- 

E2 



106 ITALY EST TEANSITION. 

parently without seeing what it implied. I then tried 
to give an account of what constituted a true conver- 
sion of the soul, and renewal of the life in the image of 
God. This he heard with real interest, and exclaimed, 
"Yes; but only grace can do that." He was good- 
tempered throughout, and both intelligent and able. 

Would it have been so safe a year before, on that 
soil of Lombardy, thus openly to discuss with a priest 
the vital point of Rome's claims ? It was Lent, the 
preaching season ; for in the Church of Rome, although 
there is scarcely any preaching all the year round (ex- 
cept in a few select places), in Lent courses of sermons 
are delivered almost every where. I heard in a large 
church a sermon on the duty of love to our neighbors. 
The congregation was very considerable, with a fair 
proportion of men. The discourse was, for the most 
part, unexceptionable — a straightforward ordinary ex- 
position of the Christian duty of doing as one would 
be done by. It was delivered in a perfunctory style, 
but was quite as good as plenty of sermons one may 
hear in England. 

During my stay in Milan I had the opportunity of 
witnessing a distinguished assembly of Milanese, and to 
hear the opinions that were freely expressed. The 
Milanese are tall, grave, and dark. The ladies have 
often splendid figures and striking faces, but few have 
the look of what we should call downright womanly 
happiness. One could not select many and say, "There 
is a happy young wife," " There is a mother full of the 



MILAN. 107 

joys of home." How mucli tliis cast of countenance 
may have to do with the long pressure of political suf- 
fering, how much with family Ufe, one can not tell. In 
a company of about three hundred I did not see more 
than three ladies or three men with fair hair, and not a 
single one with a touch of red in either the hair or the 
whiskers. It was rather a curious fact, but a fact it 
was, that nearly all the realty pretty girls in the room 
were noticeable for the quietness of their head-dress 
and neck-ornaments : not that the others were extrava- 
gantly dressed, for generally, although rich, the attire 
was in good taste. Upon the great questions of the 
moment there was a uniform vein of earnest enthusiasm. 
When the religious bearings of them were mentioned, 
there seemed some curiosity to find what an English- 
man thought ; and yet, whenever one talked upon re- 
ligion as if one meant it, an odd sort of look would be 
given, as if to say, "Are you not another sham?" that, 
perhaps, being the normal idea they have of any one 
who feels on such points. 

A very fine young man came up to ask me if I had 
lost an eye-glass. 

" This is an interesting time for a stranger to come 
to Milan," I began. 

" Very much so. I only came yesterday." 

" Then you are not a Milanese ?" 

" No, I am a Roman." 

" How are things going on at Rome ?" 

" Oh, as for us, things are as bad as they can be ; we 



108 ITALY IN^ TRANSITION. 

are entirely under the priests, and can do nothing but 
suffer, and long for the time when we shall be joined to 
the rest of the nation ; but our great difficulty is the 
Pope. What to do we do not know." I asked if the 
Pope, as a man, was not personally liked. He pouted 
his lips : " He is nobody : Antonelli is Pope, Antonelli 
is every thing." He then burst out into the usual 
strain, inveighing strongly against the Pope's govern- 
ment. 

In conversation with a Piedmontese politician of 
great name, when the question of the pending excom- 
munication came up, he smiled and said, " Well, the 
Catholic belief is not so absurd as some may think ; for 
the true Cathohc doctrine is, that excommunication has 
no validity unless pronounced for spiritual offenses, and 
in this case it would be purely on temporal grounds." 
I replied that this idea was very prevalent among the 
people, but to me it seemed that, if an excommimica- 
tion were promulgated by the vicar of Christ, with the 
council of the Cardinals, it came with all the author- 
ity the Roman Church could give it, whether on one 
ground or another ; and, besides, a temporal injury 
done to the vicar of Christ is easily proved to be a spir- 
itual offense. " Nevertheless," he said, " an excommu- 
nication on merely political grounds is invaUd, accord- 
ing to true Catholic doctrine." 

" Well, of course, I understand catholic in a different 
sense ; for to me the words ' catholic' and ' Roman' are 
not only different, but irreconcilable terms." 



MILAN. 109 

He seemed rather perplexed, and I continued : " I 
am a Catholic ; I use the word in the sense of the Apos- 
tles' Creed, which says, ' I believe in the holy catholic 
Church ;' that I say from my heart ; but mark ! the 
w®rd ' Roman' is not there. Had the Creed been writ- 
ten in modern times, it would not have been expressed 
as it is ; the word ' Roman' must have been in, and that 
would have altered the whole character of it. The Ro- 
man is a particular Church ; and when that creed was 
written, there was one catholic Church throughout the 
world." 

" Yes," he said, " catholiciis^ ' universal,' yes." 
" Yes, there was then one universal Church — the 
Church in Palestine, Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, Italy, 
France, Spain — one catholic Church, in which all the 
particular churches were sisters and equals. There was 
then no particular Church, not even the mother Church 
at Jerusalem, that claimed to be dictator to all the oth- 
ers. After the conversion of the Roman emperors, and 
the accession of masses of more than half pagan people 
as nominal adherents to Christianity, the Bishops of 
Rome gradually set themselves up to be emperors of 
the Churches, as the others had been of the nations. 
By degrees, they procured the subjection of some 
churches, and finally made a schism with all the Chris- 
tian world which would not submit to their dictation. 
From that time there existed a particular Church, de- 
nying and anathematizing all Christians that did not 
entirely bow down to her. You will never find the 



110 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

word ' Roman' in ancient creeds ; it is only in modern 
ones, after a particular Chmxh had sought to replace 
the universal one. What I want to see in Italy is, not 
that the people should seek a model in England or 
America, but that they should go back to the New Test- 
ament, and to the authentic records of the first Chris- 
tian age, and find again that ancient pure Church which 
was planted in this country by the Apostle Paul, and 
bring her back to be the blessing and glory of Italy." 

This was hstened to probably with much doubt, but, 
at all events, with perfect patience, and apparently some 
interest. We then spoke upon the character of the Ital- 
ian people. He said how long and how dreadfully they 
had been ill used, and were therefore in many respects 
behind; but oh, how intensely did he seem to love them! 
This led to an allusion to Naples, and to the remark that 
they appeared the worst specimen of the ItaUan people 
I had seen. " When in Naples, it appeared to me that 
the king's palace was the most emblematic building I 
ever saw ; it was surrounded by aU the symbols of his 
government. Upon this side the arsenal, his first in- 
strument. Force ; behind it the theatre, his second in- 
strument. Amusement ; below, under the portico, the 
public letter-writer and his desk, the next instrument, 
Popular Ignorance." 

My interlocutor at this point broke into a quiet laugh, 
and finished the sentence exactly as I meant to do, 
" And in front, the Church, the next instrument, Super- 
stition." 



MILAN. Ill 

A bending old man, evidently holding some public 
place, said, "You (the English) have been our best 
friends all through. We see that now. You have been 
faithful and disinterested." 

I said, " It is quite true that at the opening of the 
war we did not approve of it, for we have no confidence 
in benefits to a nation from the arms of another ; and, 
besides, we suspected that the emperor had two objects 
— Savoy for himself, and Tuscany for his cousin." 

" Ah !" he said, " you saw farther than we did. We 
believed his professions. Well, here we are ! He pays 
himself well. He went to war for an idea." 

"Yes, and a very practical idea too. Savoy with 
Mont Blanc and the Alpine lakes is a lofty and brilliant 
idea. But still, if Italy be united, you can do without 
Savoy." 

" Ah ! I hope so ; but we shall have great difficulties 
to pass through yet. Poor Venetia ! What is to be- 
come of Venetia ? It is terrible to think of all they are 
suffering ; but the greatest difficulty of all is the Pope. 
That always has been Italy's trouble, and threatens to 
be so worse than ever." 

" And what do you suppose will be the end ?" 

" Who can tell ? I don't know." 

" What about the excommunication ?" 

He lowered his voice and said, " It is come, but it 
will produce little effect : in Piedmont, perhaps some ; 
but here in Lombardy, no." (A little while before, a 
Piedmontese officer had been saying that it would pro- 



112 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

duce no effect in Piedmont, b'ut some in Lombardy.) 
The old man went on : " We are not now in the six- 
teenth century. Such acts have lost their power. We 
regret them, but are not afraid." 

" To me," I said, " cursing does not seem to be part 
of the work of Christ's Church. He gave his apostles 
commission to save souls ; but to put them into peril of 
damnation is not the work of any one commissioned by 
Him." 

" No, no, no, it is wrong, and ought not to be feared." 
But this was said with the tone of a man whose convic- 
tions spoke, while something in his breast sounded rath- 
er hollow, as if an old misgiving troubled him. 

" Well, for us English, of course, the malediction of 
the holy Father seems a very harmless thing." 

He looked an earnest look, which said, " Do let me 
hear why." 

" Three centuries ago that malediction was laid upon 
us. Since then we never once have had his blessing. 
What was England then? A small, disunited, igno- 
rant, superstitious, third-rate power. From that day 
dates our national greatness and welfare." 

" Ah !" he cried, with a splendid smile upon his grave 
old face, the light of a well-read history kindling up, 
" Ah ! it was so. From the time of your breach with 
the Pope your glory began." 

" Yes ; and, in spite of his curse, it has steadily 
grown ; but mark ! it has not been a groAvth of mere 
political glory, but that has all been founded on the 



MILAN. 113 

growth of religion and virtue. We have far more re- 
ligious knowledge and the fear of God, and they are in- 
creasing in our country. At the period I refer to, our 
people learned to go and seek for religion in the New 
Testament." 

" That is the true source of the Christian religion." 

" Yes, there it is as taught by Christ and the apos- 
tles ; and then the proof that the curse of God has not 
rested where the curse of the Pope rests, and the bless- 
ing of God where his blessing abounds, is to be found 
in the moral condition of our people, and of those of 
the States of the Church and Naples. God forbid that 
I should set up our people as a model ; they are very 
far from it. We have causes of shame without num- 
ber ; but still the fact remains that, in the States of the 
Church and Naples, constantly refreshed with the Pope's 
benedictions, out of a million people, about two hundred 
are yearly accused of murder, and in England only four. 
Where does the blessing of God rest ?" 

His face beamed as if I had given him a little fortune. 
Whether his pleasure arose from relief to some fears in 
his own mind, or from acquiring a fact he could use 
with others, I could hardly tell. 

" Well," he said, " our poor, poor Italy has suffered. 
Oh, how ill-used our people have been ! They may well 
be backward in many things ; but it is pleasant to think 
you can tell our friends in England that you have found 
moderation and order among us. After all, Italy may 
be imited and happy yet." 



114 ITALY IN TEANSinON. 

There was a weight of sorrow and a tenderness of 
hope in these words that would have melted any one. 
" May God grant it !" I said, with deep feeling. 

" Oh," he replied, " you can not tell how sweet it is, 
after all we have passed through, to hear a foreigner, 
an Englishman, speak with such heart of our country. 
Perhaps she has a future before her." 

I said, " I trust God may have great things in store 
for her ; and if she became really free, united, and en- 
lightened — in the family of nations Italy will be the 
fairest sister." The old man looked as if he could have 
hugged me. 



cimiitM Di 



THE GREAT PLAIN. 



The road from Milan to Piacenza leads through a 
country as dull as the flats of Egypt. The fields were 
laid out for rice, and provided, of course, with artificial 
irrigation. The peasants are sallow, and dried up with 
fever. One never mistakes the difference between the 
effect of a healthy sun upon complexion, and that of sun 
combined with malaria. The one gives a hardy brown, 
deepening regularly, according as temperature rises or 
exposure is increased ; the other underlays the skin with 
. discolored matter, combining a sort of chronic jaundice 
with the hue of mahogany. 

The three things in man's physical appearance on 
which climate tells most obviously are the complexion, 
the hair, and the eye. In cold climates the skin is white, 
the eye blue, or lighter, and the hair fair. The farther 
you go toward the tropics, the darker they all become ; 
and when to heat are added damp flats and malarious 
airs, the process of darkening is combined with one 
which leads to the sallow appearance we see in the fe- 
verish regions of America and Italy. Among the ne- 
groes it has reached a point at which the change in the 
skin appears to offer some protection against deadly ex- 



118 ITALY IN TKANSITION. 

ternal influences. In England, the blue and gray eye, 
light hair, and fair skin prevail. In France the eye is 
often brown, but the majority are gray, and light hair 
is much rarer : a great difference exists, as also in Ger- 
many, between north and south. In Italy a dark gray 
eye may frequently be found, the bright blue one scarce- 
ly ever, except high up in mountains ; but the national 
eye is brown, frequently black, and generally prominent. 
Black hair and a healthy pale complexion are also gen- 
erally prevalent. But the peasants are often browner 
than persons of rank in India, who have all their life 
been kept from the sun. There is no place where one 
so naturally observes the influence of climate as going 
up the Nile. At the mouth of it you find whiteness 
very little different from that of South Europe, except 
in those who are much exposed to the sun ; but steadi- 
ly, as you proceed upward, the color deepens, until you 
come to the thorough black of the Nubian ; the eye at 
the same time passing from gray or light brown to dark 
brown, and then intense black ; the hair becoming first 
black in every instance, then stiff and glossy, and then 
finally beginning to indicate the woolly character, which 
is to be found fully developed among the real Nigritian 
families. The animal kingdom shows the same effects 
in hair both as to quaUty and color; even to this extent, 
that in tropical countries sheep, instead of a fleece, have 
hair like a dog. 

Physically, the Italian race is one of the very finest 
upon the face of the earth. Whether we take the Pied- 



THE GEE AT PLAIN. 119 

montese qr Lombards on the north, the Tuscans and 
Romans at the centre, or the Neapolitans at the south, 
every where you find magnificent frames of men and 
women. It may be that they are indolent, as is so fre- 
quently said ; but it is hard to go among them, watch 
them in the field, in the workshops, in the towns, with- 
out gradually acquiring the conviction that, with proper 
government, and fair rewards for industry, they will be 
every thing that ought to be expected from a Southern 
people. It is not fair to look for exactly the same kind 
of working hardihood in such a climate as that of Italy 
as one has a right to expect in England or Scotland. 

Driving along this great plain, one has a clear view 
of the physical conformation of Italy. To the west and 
to the north lie the Alps, which are for Italy precisely 
what the Himalayas and the Hindoo Coosh are for In- 
dia, protecting it north and west from all the world ; 
and here, as there, immediately at the foot of the mount- 
ain wall lies an immense plain, that of the Po, answer- 
ing very fairly to that of the Ganges. On this plain 
Turin is the first great city toward the west, and Venice 
the sorrowful queen of the east. Milan and a host of 
other great places lie between. Parma and Bologna 
are upon its southern skirt, and away stretches that fat 
plain, laying open a territory of inexhaustible riches to 
one of the fairest skies that ever shone. Along the 
south of it run the Apennines, which, as well as the Alps, 
are within view at most points. These do not cross 
the whoto continent, but, turning southward, form the 



120 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

remainder of the country. Beyond the valley of the 
Po Italy is scarcely any thing but the Apennines, their 
valleys, dells, summits, outlying chains, and sub-chains, 
with two strips of flat territory between them and the 
sea on both sides. Very often the mountains encroach 
upon this httle bit of plain, and rush right into the wa- 
ter. We talk of " the backbone" of England, but these 
are really the backbone of Italy. Herodotus said long 
ago that Egypt was the gift of the Nile ; and it might 
be said, with almost equal justice, that Italy is the gift 
of the Apennines. The one is a strip in a desert of 
rock, given by a river ; the other a strip in a desert of 
water, given by a chain of mountains. 

We passed the town of Melagnano, where the French 
gave the Austrians a heavy beating — taking a thousand 
prisoners, and leaving eight hundred of their own dead. 
The town was full of the marks of the terrible struggle, 
and the mound of the dead, with its simple cross, was 
fresh. It was a curious example of the value of local 
tradition that we could not learn the name of the gen- 
eral who commanded. My memory suggested Bara- 
guay d'Hilliers, but those mentioned were M'Mahon, 
Niell, Canrobert. Even a French soldier, whom we 
met with at Lodi, was very doubtful, but at last said it 
was Niell. Now this, be it remembered, was only about 
nine months after the battle had been fought. 

Lodi was our half-way house, as dirty and dull a 
town as a traveler could wish to see. Of course we 
went to the Bridge of Lodi ; and, oh dear ! how it did 



THE GEE AT PLAIN. 121 

spoil one's boyish ideas ! When I read Scott's Life of 
Napoleon, I should have thought it worth any thing to 
see the Bridge of Lodi. It is long, narrow, ugly, built 
of wood, ill shaped, ill kept, and half burned by the Aus- 
trians — a contemptible-looking affair. Yet from these 
dirty planks went forth a blast of fame that bore the 
name of young Bonaparte into every barrack and every 
drawing-room of Europe — one proof more that, in the 
career of life, not the splendor of the theatre, but the 
quality of the actions, carries real power. 

As we were finishing dinner, the waiter most civilly 
said, in a low voice, but loud enough for the ladies to 
hear, "The road is not too safe; you had better not 
travel on by night." Those ugly words, prettily spo- 
ken, brought up images of the plain of Esdraelon, with 
Bedouins, and pistols, and spears. I am not sure but I 
had rather fall into the hands of an Arab than of an 
Italian brigand. I said something by which I hoped to 
get rid of the waiter ; but he gently added, " You had 
better not go ; unpleasant things might happen." The 
ladies heard him ; but all seemed alive to the arts of 
Italian innkeepers. No one proposed that we should 
stay for the night. When I ordered our vetturino to 
put to the horses, he made no objection. Meeting the 
waiter, I said reproachfully, " You pretend that the road 
is not safe." He replied, "I assure you it is not well to 
travel by night. It is only a few days since the dili- 
gence was attacked." 

"You do not mean that there can be any danger 

F 



122 ITALY IN TEANSITIO]^^. 

before nine o'clock in the approach to a city hke 
iPiacenza?" 

He seemed rather ashamed, and, feeling certain that 
we were to go, acknowledged that there could not be 
any danger before that hom\ 

Away we went along the same kind of country, and 
saw the sun set grandly behind heavy clouds. The 
night fell, and for three hours we drove along in the 
dark ; and after the conversation at the inn, be it men- 
tioned to the credit of English women, that though 
three were in the carriage, the word "brigand" was 
never named. Whether or not it was the Bridge of 
Lodi that inspired this heroism, I can not say, but am 
inclined to think not ; for, after the uncomfortable fash- 
ion of English women, the ladies seemed more offended 
with the dirt of Lodi than inspired with its glory. 

For a long time the lamps at the gate of Piacenza 
gleamed across the plain as we slowly and wearily made 
our way to the banks of the Po ; then we came upon a 
great bridge of boats, loosely put together, to replace 
the one which the Austrians had destroyed. The river 
is immensely broad. We passed through ruins upon 
ruins of fortifications demolished by the Austrians ; then 
by a huge building, like some two or three of the great- 
est Manchester warehouses piled together, which we un- 
derstood was a barrack; finally through a narrow and 
dirty street into the hotel. Here we found an odd com- 
bination of grandeur, kindness, and dirt. The latter is 
a very tolerable thing for a well-seasoned traveler as 



THE GREAT PLAIN". 123 

long as it continues inanimate ; but live dirt is a serious 
matter ; and in this hotel we found quartered a strong 
force of the tiny but active police appointed for the pun- 
ishment of the uncleanly. 

This hotel at Piacenza vras on a large scale, and had 
some grand rooms ; and any thing more pleasant than 
the attention of the people could not be ; but it would 
do discontented folk in England good if one could only 
have led them into a part of the establishment over 
which was inscribed the cleanly word " Baths." Think- 
ing something comfortable might be found under sucb 
an announcement, I opened the door, and such a scene 
of confusion and dirt, though women were washing in 
it! 

In the dining-room of the hotel at Piacenza was a 
large company, apparently of men of business, with one 
lady. Her husband was from Bologna, and was giving 
the rest stories as to the papal government. He talked 
in a dialect hard to understand, and with much rapid- 
ity, so that I could catch only the necks and wings of 
his facts, and I do not attempt to repeat them. When 
he had run himself out of breath with one story, his 
wife reminded him of another, and on and" on he went. 
The statements were horrible, and, to us, beyond be- 
lief; yet not one word of doubt escaped any person 
present. I could imagine that I was back again in the 
Mysore, hearing a knot of Brahmins telling stories of the 
days of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Sahib. They were tales 
of fines and imprisonment without any reason given ; of 



124 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

hundreds kept in dungeons untried and uncondemned ; 
of mulcts laid upon whole classes of persons in a day ; 
of plunder concerted between officials and robbers, and 
prey divided share and share alike ; murderers petted, 
and thinkers put to death; and priests and bishops, 
archbishops, and cardinals, and legates, all fingering and 
dividing the spoil. It was something very fearful to 
hear those tales, and to see the hatred of priests, and 
Church, and Pope, and Rome — Rome, odious Rome — 
that seethed in that company. There was something in 
the expression of that hatred such as I doubt whether 
a company of Englishmen could, under any circum- 
stances, put on. If any one has seen a man in Rome, 
when something that might compromise him is said or 
done, look round as though all the walls had eyes and 
ears, he has recognized a sj)ecies of fear as new to him 
as if he had never seen a man look afraid before — a kind 
of fear that it would be impossible for any man born 
and brought up under the British flag to throw into his 
countenance. And so with this hatred. It was not vo- 
ciferous, but it was dark and hot, and lay down in the 
secret places of the men, boiling, and smelling of blood. 
Priests, priests — blacks, scoundrels, robbers, tyrants, 
devils, priests — ^how that word priest was repeated with 
every tone that detestation could teach ! One could 
not but shudder to think what a national insurrection 
would be, led by men like these ; and the impression 
came strongly home, how much Italy and Europe owed 
to the fact that the present national movement is in the 



THE GREAT PLAIN. 125 

hands of men of the highest position and the very first 
stamp — men Avho have every thing to lose and nothing 
to gain ; and who, however much they may sympathize 
with the body of the people in what they hate and what 
they desire, have yet knowledge enough of human af- 
fairs to feel that, above all things, passion must be kept 
under, and order and moderation preserved. Instead 
of the tales of this room, here is one from the " Official 
Documents." 



The Theee Men of Ferrara. 

In 1852, the Austrians arrested, in the city of Fer- 
rara, about forty citizens on a charge of political con- 
spiracy. The town was struck with horror, which soon 
increased by news that came from within the prison. 
The prisoners made it known that they were often put 
upon bread and water, laden with chains, beaten with 
sticks and with fists, subjected to the "bench" and oth- 
er tortures ; that, while one was undergoing this, his 
companions were obliged to look on; that they were 
daily threatened with death; threatened with having 
their mothers arrested ; and that the things they were 
to say were continually suggested to them ; and they 
were forced by the extreme of pain to confess, against 
themselves and others, offenses that had never occurred. 
After these representations had reached a certain height, 
they managed somehow to get a communication sent 
to the Count Camillo Trotti, the mayor of the place, who 



126 ITALY IN TKANSITION. 

communicated with the papal government, but it had 
nothing to say to the Austrians but words of encourage- 
ment. Representations to the same effect were also 
sent to the general commanding in chief of the French 
army at Rome, and to Mr. WiUiam M'Ahster, the Brit- 
ish Consul at Ferrara. The collection contains not only 
these documents, but a large number of extracts from 
private notes of the prisoners, in which the words "bas- 
tinade," "irons," "hunger," "torture," "beating," "in 
chains for two days together," are scattered up and 
down with fearful frequency, and in which this sentence 

occurs : " As for G , they have bastinaded him two 

days together, and then read him a confession of mine 
which I had never made." At last, three men out of 
the number were sentenced to death. Their names 
were Succi, Malagutti, and Parmeggiani. The public 
opinion was that they were all innocent, even of the 
political offense alleged against them. 

The Austrian general writes to the pontifical author- 
ities the night before their execution; demands that 
they should send three " reserved and silent priests" to 
be confessors of the men. One of these priests, proba- 
bly as a part of his duty, drew up an account of all that 
passed. This was left in the archives of his confrater- 
nity (La Buona Morte)^ and is reproduced with the 
rest of the official documents. This narrative, in the 
original language, will be found printed in the Appen- 
dix f but here we give the substance of it. 

* Appendix B. 



THE GREAT PLAIN. 127 

On the afternoon of the 15th of March, 1853, the 
three confessors were carried to the prison, where they 
had to wait a long time, first, for the return of an officer 
from dinner, and, secondly, because the wife of Succi 
was screaming dreadfully, and would not be removed 
from the cell of her husband ; and the wife of Parmeg- 
giani was taken with wild convulsions, and blasphemed 
horribly. These poor women had learned the fate of 
their husbands from their own mouth. 

The priests entered the chamber of Succi, who was 
standing uncovered, and guarded by four armed sol- 
diers, but not in chains. They told him that one of 
them had come to keep him company, to weep with 
him, and to " reconcile him to God," and that he should 
choose which. Succi said, in a high tone, " I accept all ; 
but, as I am the oldest of the three unfortunates, I shall 
choose for a confessor the oldest." Then the chief 
priest, throwing his arm around his neck, and kissing 
him on the forehead, said, " It is I." " But," replied 
the sufierer, " I wish first to make a little will, and to 
say that the confession, and the written depositions 
which I have made to the military commission, have 
been extorted from me by violence, by the bench, by 
bastinading, and by chains ; and that they did not mere- 
ly threaten me, but beat me ; and that unless I meant 
to die under the lash, there was nothing for it but that 
I should say what they w^ished." 

The priests passed to the cell of Dr. Malagutti. He 
threw himself upon his knees, weeping bitterly ; he kiss- 



128 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

ed the hands of all, and then said, " Thank God that I 
see a clergyman in this my agony, which has oppressed 
me since eleven o'clock in the morning." He rose and 
said, "I wish to confess all my sins, and to tell you that I 
have such confidence in the mercy of God that it appears 
to be almost a sin of presumption. And let it be known 
that in my examination I have been forced to say what 
they wished. I have suffered horrible tortures, which 
have brought on hemorrhage. You must all stop with 
me," he said. He was told that he must choose one. 

" Then," he said, "let it be my schoolfellow, Don Lui- 
giZaffi." 

Then they went to Parmeggiani. He rose, kept his 
hat on his head, and said, " You have come to confess 
me? I am innocent. I wish to confess in public, in 
the presence of the commission, and to say that what I 
have said and written has been extorted from me by 
suggestive questions, by irons (leaving me an entire 
month in chains day and night), by the stick; in conse- 
quence of which, they were obliged to take me to the 
Hospital of the Martyrs, w^here I was for eighteen days." 
They told him that he must choose one of the three. 
He looked in the faces of them all, and, knowing one, he 
burst out weeping, and said, " Father, you have had a 
wife and children ; you can more easily pity an afficted 
father, who is leaving a wife and two marriageable 
daughters in poverty." Then, seizing him forcibly by 
the hand, he made him sit down on his bench.* 

* The internal evidence of the narrative shows that it was this 



THE GEE AT PLAIN. 129 

Parmeggiani wept with strong convulsions. He 
drank cold water and coffee all the night, and was nev- 
er silent. He continually spoke of the unjust and ini- 
quitous mode of seeking the truth with tortures, "under 
which both the strong and the weak told lies." He 
wrote a letter to his wife. He made his will ; he con- 
fessed twice, and several times asked for absolution. 
He went through several acts bf devotion. At two 
o'clock in the morning, he said, " I should like to know 
if my companions have confessed. Go and ask ; and 
tell them that I have confessed, and that I ask pardon 
from them if, in act or word, I have caused them any 
pain." Succi said, "I ought to ask pardon of him; 
and, if we meet before the execution, I will ask him to 
give me the kiss of forgiveness." Malagutti was sit- 
ting on his bed with his confessor, smoking a cigar, 
and said he had pardoned all, as he hoped God had 
pardoned him. At seven o'clock in the morning Par- 
meggiani and his confessor went down, and found Mal- 
agutti surrounded by soldiers. The confessor took him 
by his left hand, holding his own sufferer in the right. 
They kissed one another. At that moment Succi ar- 
rived; and then they all three kissed, and said, " Adieu." 
They went into the church, repeating the "Act of 
Faith." They kneeled at the foot of the altar ; they 

priest who has left the record. Human affections had been waken- 
ed lip in him by family ties; and the command that the priests 
should be "close and silent" had not been well executed in select- 
ing Don Giuseppe Poltronieri, 

F 2 



130 . ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

received the Holy Communion with, the utmost devo- 
tion. At the reading of the last Gospel they stood up, 
and Malagutti said aloud, " Oh, how light I feel! Lord, 
grant that the years of life taken away from me may 
be added to my mother !" Parmeggiani repeated the 
prayer, and added, "And to my daughters." When 
they arrived at the ground of execution, Succi and 
Parmeggiani declined to be bandaged ; and the latter 
kneeled down, lifting up his united hands with his eyes 
closed, repeating, "Jesus," &c. A lieutenant came, and 
said he must be bandaged ; it was his duty ; and a sol- 
dier put a white handkerchief over him, he still con- 
tinuing on his knees. They then fired upon them into 
the chest and into the forehead. "Parmeggiani fell upon 
his face, and never moved. He died like a martyr." 

On the day of this tragedy, young Hannibal Bonac- 
cioli, a student of eighteen, left his home for his classes 
at the University, and on the way heard what a deed 
was being done. He stopped ; and, meeting some of 
his comrades, told them to go home and weep. The 
crime of having said this to several was laid to his 
charge, and he was thrown into prison. When released, 
he and his father applied for permission to go to see 
another brother, living in Turin. This point was not 
decided without a formal reference to the„central gov- 
ernment at Rome; whence came an order, signed by 
the most reverend and most terrible name of Matteucci, 
giving permission for Hannibal and his father to receive 
passports, but on the condition that, if he once left the 



THE GEEAT PLAIN. 131 

State, he was not to return. This was inserted with 
the threat that, in case of his re-entering his native 
country, he should undergo a year of imprisonment. 
Five months afterward we find another letter from the 
same Matteucci, directed to the apostolic delegate of 
Ferrara, and telling him that, as Hannibal had returned 
to his native town, he must suffer the penalty with 
which he had been menaced. He was again thrown 
into prison, and treated worse than a malefactor. In a 
few months more we find another letter from Doctor 
Dino Pesci, also to the apostolic delegate, telling him 
that from childhood he had been the friend of Hannibal, 
and that he now had one favor to ask. His old com- 
panion was all but dying, and suffering terribly ; he en- 
treated permission to go to him, that he might pass the 
nights with him, and some hours of the day, to nurse 
him m his sickness. But no such comfort was to be 
allowed to the unfortunate prisoner. All that could be 
obtained was, that when his twelvemonth of imprison- 
ment expired he should be again set at liberty, " being 
subjected to that rigorous political restraint sanctioned 
by the fact of his having been imprisoned for a year." 
But shortly after the hand of Matteucci wrote this gra- 
cious permission, another letter was written to tell him 
that Hannibal Bonaccioli was dead — killed slowly for 
the crime of having told his comrades to weep for the 
three men of Ferrara.* 

* The documents illustrating this case are twenty-five in number, 
and are found in the second volume of the ** Official Documents," 
occupying from page 539 to page 565. 



Cjiaiitn nil 

PIACENZA, PARMA, AND MODENA. 



The name Piacenza means " charm, grace, pleasant- 
ness," &c. Well, so be it ; it is a pretty name, and it 
is said, in some of the books, that Piacenza is a beauti- 
ful city. Certainly the Po rolls by it broad and grand, 
with the bridge of boats over it, and the many forts 
built and blown up by the Austrians lie about in sug- 
gestive ruins ; but as for the city itself, if one must tell 
the truth in plain words, it is flat and dirty, without fine 
buildings or pleasant walks. 

In the piazza two middle-aged men were standing 
talking in that leisurely way that one so rarely sees in 
England, just as if talking were the business of life, and 
standing at the street corner the natural way to carry 
it on. They were evidently glad to have their com- 
pany increased by a foreigner. Their tongues ran as 
smoothly as all in the country on the questions of the 
day. They pointed to the placards all over the town, 
"Victor Emmanuel forever!" "Annexation forever!" 
and " Our Italian king ! our legitimate king forever !" 
for this was the first point we had reached of the terri- 
tory which had not previously belonged to Piedmont 
or been conceded by treaty, but had just attached itself 



136 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

by the vote of annexation. When the question of the 
priests and the Church came up, one of the men showed 
considerable curiosity to know what I as an Enghsh- 
man would say, and after a while he turned to his com- 
rade and remarked, " They used to tell us that Protest- 
ants were not Christians ; that they were a sort of infi- 
dels or atheists, or something of that kind ; but we know 
better now. Why, the Protestants have more churches 
than we ; they attend them more numerously ; they be- 
have in them with a deal more reverence ; they believe 
the doctrines of the Christian religion much more firm- 
ly, and, what is more, their moral tone is higher ;" and, 
lowering his voice, he said, " and their priests have fam- 
ilies, and are good citizens, like other men." 

Seeing placards upon a book-shop announcing a set 
of political sermons, one upon the excommunication, I 
went in, and, purchasing the whole course, found that 
the eyes of a considerable number of customers were 
fixed upon me. The subject of the pamphlets at once 
led them to talk upon this question. They not only 
agreed with me, but ran before me, as to the duty of 
our learning religion directly from Christ and His apos- 
tles through the Bible ; but they did seem puzzled when 
now and then I put in a word to the effect that person- 
ally the Pope was a good kind of man, and insisting that 
there were many good priests. Above all, they seemed 
to think it strange that one spoke of rehgion and devo- 
tion as living things. 

As we were going round the town for a drive, I asked 



PIACENZA, PAEMA, AND MODENA. 137 

the coachman — a yellow, knife-nosed fellow, that one 
would not like to meet between Jerusalem and Jericho 
— what the people here said about the excommunication 
by the Pope. 

" They want to go and knock him on the head," he 
growled. 

A druggist, into whose shop we had gone, was soon 
led into a violent onset upon the poor Pope. I put in 
a good word for the old man, using the expression, 
''Santo Padre" ("Holy Father"), 

" Santo Padre P"* grumbled the druggist, giving us a 

suspicious look; and, turning to Mr. B , he asked 

plump, "Are you Irish?" Not a little tickled, I said, 
" No, he is English." 

" Oh, then we may talk. The Irish have faith in the 
Pope. Well for them ! they live far enough away for 
that. We are too near not to know what the popes are, 
and the cardinals, and the priests, and the monks, and 
the nuns, and all the rest of them." Then he said, " We 
Italians know something now about the difference be- 
tween Rome and the Protestants, and it is high time 
that we were Protestants too." 

From Piacenza a railway runs along to the east, leav- 
ing the Apennines on the right, and the Po on the left. 
The first capital city to which it brings you is Parma. 
Here there was an immense crowd around the station, 
and I was glad to share an open carriage with a com- 
mercial traveler, whose luggage filled it up. Every 
where the crowds were great and the excitement high. 



138 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

They had just gathered to witness the first arrival of 
Piedmontese cavah'y — a living proof that the annexa- 
tion had really been accepted by the king, and that pos- 
session was taken in his name. What gay uniforms in 
the street, and what a buzz of triumph and hope ! 

The city is really a fine one as a provincial city ; but 
we should as soon think of calling Bath or Leamington 
a capital. In fact, it is not equal to either. At the first 
hotel to which we came, there was " no room ;" at the 
second, "no room;" at the third, '^no room." How 
glad I was that, for the moment, my friends and I had 
parted, they having gone on directly to Bologna ! At 
last, at one hotel, after we had got the same answer, a 
waiter ran out and cried, " Yes, there is room." My 
companion went to see, I sitting and watching the 
crowd in the streets. After a good while he returned, 
and, looking out of the corners of both eyes, said, 
" There is a little bit of a closet, but there is nothing 
for you ;" and he began to take down his boxes. I 
bowed and smiled, and said, " There is nothing for me !" 
The waiter, in a friendly voice, cried, " Stop, sir, per- 
haps I can find you a room in a house hard by." Off he 
went, and I followed. There was a motherly old body 
in a good large house, with a plentiful allowance of 
peaceful, self-possessed dirt, that had never been molest- 
ed by the breath of an Englishwoman. She took me 
up stairs into a capital room, looking twice as comfort- 
able as one could expect. At the foot of the staircase 
was a place open to the sky, as is very common in Ital- 



PIACEKZA, PAEMA, AND MODENA. 139 

ian houses ; snow was lying there, which had fallen this 
winter, I argued ; but, from its color, it might belong to 
any post-diluvian era. It had evidently lain long in per- 
fect peace with a rich black pall, except in a spot or two 
where something had fallen upon it and broken it. An 
English hostler would have stared at such a thing in a 
stable-yard — in fact, it could not be endured. 

After a survey of the town and visits to coffee-houses, 
during which I had such a troublesome companion of 
toothache that I could not get into the usual conversa- 
tions with the people, I returned and had a long fireside 
chat with the sensible and kind old woman. It seem- 
ed rather an event for her to have a live Inglese to en- 
lighten, and she put out her powers with a good will. 
She praised Maria Louisa very much, and said all sorts 
of bad things of the present duchess. As to the Pope, 
the priests, and nuns, she had not the same bad feeling 
as the men, but talked lightly of them all. " Black in 
robes and black in heart," she said ; " we have a thou- 
sand, I dare say, of them in Parma, one sort and an- 
other." I had been struck with the number in the 
streets, most of them looking depressed, a few content, 
two in angry discussion with citizens, and some, poor 
fellows, looking really hungry and dirty. One could 
not help contrasting the difference between the tone in 
Avhich this woman talked and that of a person of the 
same class in Connaught, to whom a priest and a nun 
would be something sacred, a bishop almost superhu- 
man, and the Pope rather more than half Divine. 



140 ITALY IN TRANSITIOX. 

The air and site of Parma contrast pleasantly with 
those of Piacenza, and the people appear to differ a good 
deal from those of the Lombard plain. They are not 
taller, but have a fine complexion ; not a few of them 
have light hair, and many are very handsome. They lie 
farther south, but on more elevated ground. The most 
beautiful woman I had yet seen in Italy was a young 
Parmesan lady. 

In the morning the old woman awoke me early ; and 
talk of dirt as you may. Englishwomen, with all their 
cleanliness, can not give one a cup of coffee like that. 
I was soon in my favorite second-class carriage, having 
now liberty to choose, as I was alone. It is the real 
place for observing and picking up, and, as to comfort, 
only below the first in idea ; for foreigners say that the 
first class is made for " fools and Englishmen." An old 
colonel, three ladies, a thin, sallow Capuchin monk, and 
another gentleman, were in the carriage. The monk 
had just returned from South America through En- 
gland. In spite of all one heard against priests and 
friars, something in his suffering countenance said, " I 
try to keep a conscience void of offense, and am ready 
to do a good action." He soon left ; and it was really 
a rehef to hear the others in the carriage, after a few 
remarks upon his sickly looks, say that the Capuchins 
were often sincerely religious men. One so generally 
finds that a belief in goodness, particularly among 
priests, is totally wanting, that to hear it expressed in 
any way is comforting. They did, however, say that 



PIACENZA, PAEMA, AND MODEIN^A. 141 

many of the Capuchins were all they professed to be, 
and lived a penitential life. When asked what they 
meant by a penitential life, they expressed it as a life 
of severity and mortifications to the body, but seemed 
entirely to agree that that could not be the kind of life 
to which all men were called by the voice of the Chris- 
tian religion ; that real penitence must consist in abhor- 
ring and fleeing from our sins, and following Christ in 
newness of life. The old colonel, who had been in the 
Grand Army with the first Napoleon, and was a Chev- 
alier of the Legion of Honor, said he had seen a great 
deal of Protestants in Germany, and Holland, and oth- 
er countries, and he had been particularly struck with 
their mode of confession; that instead of one man going 
alone with the priest, and trying to tell him all he could 
remember, and forgetting a great deal, a number knelt 
down together in public, and made a general confession 
to the Almighty, and asked Him to give them absolu- 
tion. 

This naturally led me to say that in the Book of 
Psalms and the Epistles in the New Testament we 
found the confessions of David and Paul, but they were 
confessions made direct to the Almighty, and never 
consisted in detailed description of offenses, which, put 
before a human mind, have never any. effect but that of 
soiling it. They were only such general though deep 
acknowledgments of guilt against God as serve to show 
the penitent feeling of the heart, without defiling the 
imagination of others. The others seemed to be rather 



142 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

surprised to hear a Protestant speak in this way, and 
were still more so when I repeated as a summary of 
my faith the Apostles' Creed. They were exceedingly 
grave, and pulled me up at the word " catholic," and 
asked if I believed in that, and wondered at the exposi- 
tion of it. While all the others were silent and thought- 
ful, the old colonel was as sprightly as Champagne, and 
began merrily telling all he had seen in the way of re- 
ligion. On the whole, he thought the Protestants were 
the best ; but it was plain he had not taken much pains 
to decide that question. The Quakers he had seen, and 
took them for rather an odd set — something very like 
the monks, he thought. 

The town of Modena is entered by a stately gate, 
and at first presents the aspect of a considerable capital. 
The duke's palace is more imposing than any of ours, 
and at first one is ready to imagine that this little pri- 
vate capital is going to prove a city that would aston- 
ish us in England ; but it disappoints, and is much infe- 
rior to Parma. It seems odd to find two capitals within 
an hour or two's run on the railway ; and one can not 
wonder that men, instead of being content to remain 
the property of a princeHng, should aspire to be mem- 
bers of a great nation. Modena had that air of inferi- 
ority to Parma which almost necessarily follows a 
harsher form of despotism. It was here that, after the 
restoration, the duke said he did not want enlightened 
men, but obedient subjects and submissive Christians ; 
and the mode of carrying on his government was such 



PIACENZA, PAEMA, AND MODENA. 143 

as to lead Farini to say, " In activity he had few equals, 
in obstinacy scarcely any, in perfidy not one."* Insig- 
nificant prince as he was, he has left a superb palace 
and rich galleries, which it is worth the while of any 
traveler to stop at Modena and see. The old colonel 
and his party met me in the dining-room of the hotel. 
Two young volunteers in the uniform of privates had 
joined them and dined with us. One was the relative 
of the ladies who accompanied the colonel, and to see 
whom they had come ; the other was the son of a count, 
who had three brothers out as volunteers. That term 
in Italy means one who not only joins the army without 
being drawn in the conscription, but takes no pay. The 
old man seemed quite young again, and, beside the Cross 
of the Legion of Honor, which he wore, showed me the 
St. Helena medal, which he had carried in his pocket, 
and then put it on. He seemed to return with amazing 
pride the salutations with which both men and officers 
met him in the street. The place abounded in soldiers, 
some of them the raw levies just coming under training, 
and others the thoroughly-formed legions of Piedmont. 
The old man talked much of the virtues of English ale. 
In Belgium he had once had a bottle of it, and said it 
was stronger than wine. " For twenty-four hours," he 
cried, " I did not feel that I was upon the earth." 
"Whenever the religious aspects of the questions of the 
day came into view, which they were constantly doing, 
the others wanted to hear them discussed, but the poor 

* Tstor^ia d' If alia. 



144 , ITALY IN TRAl^SITION. 

old colonel had always some word to put in, sucli as, 
" Do you know that before the French Revolution we 
had twenty convents in Parma ?" 

'' Twenty convents in that one little city ?" 
" Yes ; and there was one for men here, and another 
for women opposite, and an underground passage be- 
between the two. ^eco /" 

On the way to Bologna, I had for companion a very 
intelligent man, with his daughters. He gloried in the 
present state of the country ; but with regard to pope, 
cardinal, priest, and all their kin, manifested the same 
sort of hatred which had horrified me among the men 
in the room at Piacenza. When I asked if we had al- 
ready passed the papal frontier, he said, " We have no 
frontier now. We are formed into the kingdom of 
Italy. We are a country ; and we shall be a country, 
not hacked up, and tied tightly in little parcels, so as to 
be handed about among princelings, as may be most 
convenient. All that has had its day. The national 
impulse has been given to the twenty-five millions of 
Italy, and it is going forward as an avalanche goes, 
when the hand of spring has touched it upon the mount- 
ains. It is moving, and aU the princes and diplomatists 
in the world may be alarmed, or jealous, or angry, but 
it is not to be arrested. Frontier!" he said; "there 
used to be a frontier here, between us and that miser- 
able Duke of Modena ; and then a frontier to Parma, 
and then a frontier to Piedmont, and then a frontier to 
Tuscany, and then a frontier to Massa. But that's all 



PIACENZA, PARMA, AND MODENA. 145 

over, thank God." Clapping his hand upon his pocket, 
where, I suppose, the passports used to lie, he said, 
" Signore, I leave Bologna now and come back, travel- 
ing without a passport, like an Englishman at home." 

A few years ago, the authorities on this frontier were 
much occupied about a gentleman traveling with an 
English passport as Colonel Crawford, but this was not 
his name. He had just escaped from a French state 
prison. He bad been in the Pope's dominions before, 
and the idea had got abroad that he was about to ap- 
pear there again, with political designs. Instructions 
were given that he should be "arrested, and closely- 
confined ;" and all manner of vigilance was maintained ; 
still he was not secured, and the authorities grew im- 
patient about the arrest of this "wight."* On a certain 
day the higher power from Bologna writes to an inferior 
at Poretta, and tells him, " It has come to our knowl- 
edge, that on the night of the 21st instant (June, 1846), 
a young stranger, laden with arms and money, who took 
up his lodgings at the hotel of Luigi Ferrari, although 
using a feigned name, was recognized by an English 
lady as the son of Jerome Bonaparte." He goes on to 
say how the stranger sent a letter into Bologna to the 
Count Camerata, son of the Princess Baciocchi (a mem- 
ber of the Bonaparte family), who was driven to Poretta 
by Battista Golinelli, and arrived at eleven o'clock A.M. 
on the 2 2d. The stranger met the count at a mile from 
his hotel. The count got out of the carriage, and they 

* The word is soggetto. 

G 



146 ITALY IN TRANSITIOI^. 

walked back together. The count applied for a pass- 
port to Monte Catini, which was refused ; but as the 
stranger had several passports, they set off toward Tus- 
cany, accompanied by Luigi Ferrari, to the frontier^ and 
having a Tuscan subject as guide. And then a severe 
rebuke is administered to the subordinate official for 
his remissness, because the report was current that the 
stranger was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, lately escaped 
from the chateau of Ham, the " wight" of whom the 
government w^as in search. 

A second letter tells this official that it is pleasing to 
find that he had sufficient evidence that the stranger 
was not Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, of whom the police 
were in search, but his cousin, the son of Jerome. 
However, as the report had got abroad, much harm 
had been done ; and, therefore, the censure for not hav- 
ing given information is repeated. 

From Poretta the authority had w^ritten in great 
anxiety, on the very day of the alleged arrival, to say 
that, at his part of the frontier, the suspected " wight" 
might easily pass ; for no one knew him, and they had 
no account of his personal appearance. Li fact all that 
they could ascertain respecting hun. was, that he was 
about forty years of age; that is, if the almanacs were 
correct. He begs, therefore, at once, that means of 
recognizing his person may be forwarded. The reply 
is to the effect that they do not possess any means of 
giving a personal description of him, and therefore all 
vigilance must be used ; but that the absence of a de- 



PIACENZA, PAEMA, AND MODENA. 147 

scription is less material, as it often proves that persons 
who are described as having a beard turn up well 
shaved, and vice versa,^ 
This is a chapter in a remarkable biography.f 

* However, the following shows that the defect in information 
did not always last. 

««Acts N. 59, f. P. N. 
" Personal marks of Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte : 

Age, thirty-eight years. 

Height, a metre and sixty-six centimetres. 

Hair, chestnut. 

Eyebrows, ditto. 

Forehead, middling. 

Eyes, gray and little. 

Nose, big. 

Mouth, middling. 

Lips, thick. 

Beard, brown. 

Mustaches, fair. 

Chin, pointed. 

Visage, oval. 

Complexion, pale. 

Special features. — Head stuck down between the shoulders; 
shoulders, broad; back, round; some gray hairs. " — ** Documents," 
part i., p. 55-63. 

f These documents are found in a work of the Cavaliere Gennarelli, 
the official editor of the Government Documents, issued since then, 
and entitled, / Lutti dello Stato Romano, e VAvvenire delta Corte dl 
Roma, The documents quoted are given at full length in the Ap- 
pendix C, but those upon the case are more numerous. 



BOLOGNA DURING THE GENERAL ELECTIONS. 



For a city of such historical name, both ancient and 
modern, Bologna does not impress the stranger as oth- 
er Italian cities do. Like all the places that have been 
under the papal government, it looks as if it had for 
some centuries been waiting for better times — things as 
they might have been some three hundred years ago, 
when it fell under the rule of the Popes. Most of the 
streets have low mediaeval porticoes, of which an idea 
may be got in our city of Chester, where only enough 
remain to be a picturesque memorial' of things that are 
past. In Bologna they have the effect of giving a 
stereotyped cast to the whole place. 

The people are tall, darker than any to the north, ex- 
cept those on the flat plains of Lombardy, and, for the 
most part, less cleanly and carefully dressed. The men 
generally wear those great cloaks, of which a familiar 
name is " wrap-rascal," and which have too often served 
the purpose of concealing a dagger. From the outra- 
geous proportions of crinoline, I thought that it must 
have been forbidden by the papal government, and that 
the women, now that they had freedom, were taking 
revenge ; but at Rome I found that, whatever might be 



152 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

under repression, hoops were free. Judging from En- 
glish analogies, one would expect that the first general 
election after a great revolution would be attended 
with commotion, if not with tumult. This, however, I 
had learned not to expect. Whatever our other poUt- 
ical institutions may be, it appears certain that, in mak- 
ing elections mstruments of vice, no people has yet 
come near to us. I have been in Paris when every 
man there, without exception, was voting under the 
double heat of French temperament and revolutionary 
passions, and yet the whole passed off in as business- 
like a way as the drawing of dividends at the Bank of 
England. So in America ; though there was plenty of 
discussion before, and of shouting, and firing, and tar- 
barrels after the election, the process itself was re- 
spectable. And here among these Romagnoles, noted 
for their boihng blood and swift-striking hands, an En- 
glishman might have been in the town, and no more 
have imagined that it was the day of the general elec- 
tion than that it was Christmas-day in England. Every 
thing was conducted with the most perfect decorum, 
not even a sign of the public tranquillity being disturb- 
ed. For such men as Count Pepoli, and Minghetti, and 
others, who were at the head of the pubhc movement, 
this must have been gratifying in the highest degree ; 
and the former, who knows England thoroughly, must 
derive some pleasure from thinking that English people 
must feel how much better order was observed at this 
new and first election, than is often to be found in our 



BOLOGNA. 153 

own country with all our advantages. To me the 
greatest marvel of order I had witnessed any where was 
in Bologna, because here the people, having been under 
the rule of priests, all spoke of them with an intensity 
of hatred such as one did not meet with either in Pied- 
mont or Lombardy. There the feeling against them 
was strong enough, but it was that of men who were 
able to take care of themselves. Here, on the contrary, 
it was that of men who had suffered in their tenderest 
feehngs, perhaps in all their interests, and who felt so 
bitterly that one would have thought it must lead to 
deeds of violence. I could not, however, hear of any 
injury having been done to a priest from the beginning 
of the Revolution. In one case, in a day of great pop- 
ular commotion, when the people were streaming in 
one direction, two priests were seen breaking the crowd, 
and pushing their way in an opposite one ; and all who 
know a great multitude know that it is not a very safe 
thing to set one's self against the stream. Count Pe- 
poli himself took the trouble of going to these two im- 
prudent men, and said to them, " Gentlemen, perhaps 
you may know me ; I take the liberty of advising you 
not to go against the crowd as you are now doing. It 
is possible you may meet with insults." They told 
him, however, that they were not afraid of the conse- 
quences, and pushed on, and, to the pride and pleas- 
ure of the good citizens, did not receive one uncivil 
word. 
Facts like these show the difference between a revo- 
G2 



154 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

lution led by the natural heads of a people, and one in 
which they side with oppression, and leave the pow- 
er in the hands of demagogues. Had they, instead 
of such men as the Pepolis, been at the head of this 
Romagnole rising, scenes would have been enacted over 
which human nature might blush for centuries to come. 
They who most inveigh against the noble men and phi- 
losophers who have placed themselves at the head of 
the national movement are the very persons who owe 
to them every drop of blood in their veins, and every 
atom of goods that their families can call their own. 

At Bologna we witnessed again the arrival of Pied- 
montese cavalry. How far the people went out to 
meet them! How densely they crowded around the 
gate ! How they lined the highway on each side, and 
waited and chatted pleasantly! How they covered 
their windows with banners, and prepared the rich 
flowers of the country to fling in fragrant welcome to 
soldiers of their own blood ! And when, at last, the 
waving of the first lances was seen, with w^hat emotion 
the words, "They come! they come!" went through 
the crowd. And they did come, dusty but cheerful, 
thoroughly equipped for service, on little hardy horses, 
and led by gallant-looking men. All through the crowd 
the welcome given to them was one of boihng enthusi- 
asm. They had often seen soldiers in those streets, 
but these were not oppressors, but defenders, not a for- 
eign army of occupation, nor a papal army of oppres- 
sion. For the first time in their life they could say. 



BOLOGNA. . 155 

" Our own soldiers," " Our own cavalry," " Our own 
officers," " Our own uniform." 

In Bologna, intense as was the feeling against the 
priests, the churches seemed well attended. At one, a 
splendid military festival was celebrated. The Nation- 
al Guards, with arms, and uniform, and bands of music, 
and flags, made an imposing show, and the whole mat- 
ter went off with great edat. 

At the great church of St. Petronius was the largest 
congregation I ever saw to hear a sermon in a Romish 
church. Over the pulj)it was spread an awning of can- 
vas to assist the voice, and below that a heavy sound- 
ing-board. The preacher was a dark Capuchin, who 
had already, during Lent, excited much attention. In 
the very heavy shade created by awning and sounding- 
board, nothing could be seen but the yellowish oval 
of his face, above the thick black beard which hung 
down undistinguished in the general gloom. The only 
other point visible, besides this oval, was the white 
cord round his waist, and the yellow hands when they 
moved. In darkness that little oval was set, and out 
of darkness came the deep, rich, pliant voice, and against 
a background of darkness the white waist-cord lay, and 
the hands were waved. It was the very thing for 
Rembrandt to have painted ; and some of his disciples 
ought to have been there. 

He addressed the people by the style of " Signor€'^ 
("Gentlemen"), as I had formerly heard done at Milan; 
but with this friar the term " Gentlemen" came as oft- 



156 , ITALY IN TBANSITION. 

en as " Beloved" does with some preachers at home. 
He pom-ed out a torrent of rich sound, modulated with 
the greatest skill, and adorned by a manly bearing, 
and, in the main, dignified gesture. He was a speaker 
of very uncommon power. The Church of Rome does 
not descend to the reading of sermons. If men can 
preach, they are employed to do so ; if not, they let 
it alone. This man could preach, and that with a 
witness. 

His subject was "The glory of the Priesthood;" and 
the proposition he laid down was this : " The defama- 
tions uttered by the laity against the priesthood are an 
impudent injustice." He began by saying that he did 
not wonder at heretics, and Turks, and atheists malign- 
ing the priests, but the shocking thing was that it 
should be done by Catholics. In all ages and nations 
the priest had been held in sacred regard. Among the 
Jews, among the old Egyptians — of whose ideas the 
hieroglyphics had given us back some notion — among 
the Persians, among the Greeks and Romans, the priest 
was ever a public power to whom men looked in all 
the junctures that involved the crises of life: the Brah- 
min in India, the Mandarin in China, and the Llama in 
Tartary, was often treated as a kind of god. So, from 
the foundation of the Christian priesthood in all coun- 
tries, it had been held in lofty honor. But of late it 
had become the fashion to malign it. They were rep- 
resented as the enemies of good, the patrons of all evil, 
obstacles to human progress, dangerous to liberties and 



BOLOGNA. 157 

repose, and even injurious to animal life. He undertook 
to show that ail this was flagrantly unjust. Then he 
sat down for a moment, gave the people time to breathe, 
and rose and began. 

" Do you know what is the dignity of a priest of the 
Roman Catholic Church? It is the highest dignity 
under heaven ! Kings are to be honored ; magistrates 
are to have their respect too ; scholars, discoverers, and 
poets, all merit honor ; but upon this earth there is no 
dignity that for one moment can compare itself with 
that of the Roman priest. Do you know who a priest 
is? He is no less than a person who continues here 
upon earth the sacrifice of the Son of God ! a person 
who daily renews the great act of the economy of Re- 
demption ! a person who holds the keys of the kingdom 
of God, and opens or shuts ! a person who, with a few 
Divine words, changes the elements of bread and wine 
into the body, blood, soul, and Divinity of Christ! a 
person who stands between you and God, hearkening 
to the confession of your sins, and pronouncing over 
you the absolution given by the Almighty ! a person 
who, in infancy, makes you members of Christ ; who, 
in youth, formally inducts you by the Holy Sacrament 
into the communion of saints; who, when you are 
young and full of life, consecrates your union with the 
wife of your choice ; who, in the day of bereavement, 
brings the consolations of heaven to the dark chambers 
of your friends ; and who, when your own day of death 
comes, bids your soul depart in peace !" All good, all 



158 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

comfort, all true science, all the lights really valuable to 
men, had come through the priest. In the early age 
the Church had its Chrysostoms, its Augustines, its 
Cyrils, and a long list, which he repeated with the ut- 
most rapidity, and wonderfully sonorous effect. Now, 
in our modern day, it had its equally illustrious roll of 
names, which again he poured out with the same fluen- 
cy and force. But w^hat was my astonishment, in the 
midst of these names, to hear those of Lamennais and 
Gioberti. The priests had been the patrons of the 
arts : here another list of artistes whom they had made, 
from Michael Angelo to Canova. They had been the 
fathers of knowledge : here a long citation of learned 
and scientific priests. They had been the founders of 
all charitable institutions : and here was really the most 
eloquent part of his sermon, but one impossible to re- 
port from memory. Selecting every great work in the 
history of the Church which had been done by an in- 
dividual, characterizing it in a word, he concluded each 
sentence with, "This is the benefit of a priesthood!" 
"Yes, the priests were the guides of Ufe, the lights of 
the world ; they were the salt of the earth, they were 
the staff of society, they were the shield of the people, 
they were the glory of the past, they were the hope of 
the future." Again he sat down, and gave the people 
the benefit of a long respite. Rising up, he exclaimed, 
"But there are bad priests! True: there are bad 
priests, many of them; but what does that prove? 
There are bad Christians ; but that does not prove that 



BOLOGNA. 159 

Christianity itself is bad." And so he went on ; but 
this part of his oration was certainly the least effective. 
Still it was a grand declamation; real eloquence was 
joined with earnestness and courage; and, so far as 
one could judge, the whole was sustained by perfect 
honesty. The man seemed to mean every word he 
said, and to look upon the priesthood, of which he was 
the organ, as the one institution upon which the tem- 
poral and eternal happiness of mankind depended. The 
effrontery appeared to cost him little effort, and of the 
blasphemy into which his grandiose periods often led 
him he seemed unconscious. The people heard well. 
A few looked as if his reproaches troubled them ; some 
were evidently angry; but the most part seemed just 
to say, " He does it very cleverly." Opposite him sat 
the Chapter of the Cathedral, a numerous body in rich 
robes — some of them fine-looking men, but others of 
dark and dangerous countenances. His enthusiasm 
did not appear to carry them along. They seemed 
more uneasy than elated, and as they retired there was 
more of anxiety than of any other feeling upon their 
countenances. 

Oh ! how one would have liked to stand up then and 
preach, giving this honest man and his theme credit for 
every good man and good action he could justly cite ; 
then, sweeping his false facts and false history to the 
winds, preach to that throng the one great High Priest, 
the one sacrifice for sin, the one Mediator between God 
and man, and tell them of the true, meek, and benign 



160 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

mission of the minister of the Gospel upon the earth ! 
One could not do that ; but one could pray that He 
who holds the stars in His right hand — and the stars 
are the messengers of the Churches — would call many 
out of darkness to shine on this Italy. 

The singing of the responses at one part of this serv- 
ice was exceedingly fine. The multitude joined, and it 
was the sort of music that men can enjoy. In contrast 
with it, the singing in the Protestant French, Swiss, and 
Italian churches is very miserable. They seem to have 
adopted as an axiom that a psalm or a hymn is to be 
only a wail. The music is sweet and good, and, for 
penitential psalms, very appropriate ; but the praise of 
God is not all plaint, and the emotions of worship not 
all heavy. Many of David's Psalms are like the cher- 
ubim ; they have six wings, and are full of eyes. They 
are intended to mount, and course, and shine, and war- 
ble against the very arches of heaven ; and yet these are 
made to sigh, as if the Protestant Churches had found 
no music but for the sorrows of the Psalmist. Joy, tri- 
umph, outbursts, raptures, flashes of fire^ and peals of 
hallelujah, are the ideal of the music which suits the 
greater part of David's psalmody, and especially which 
suits that of a Christian multitude, redeemed to God, 
and marching on its way to immortal happiness. In al- 
ternation with such music as this, the penitential and 
solemn strains one so often hears would have great 
power over the soul ; but where they alone are heard, 
they become merely soft and heavy. By persons train- 



BOLOGNA. 161 

ed in them from infancy this is not felt ; but, for influ- 
ence upon the great multitude of men, the defect can 
hardly be overrated. The singing in the German and 
Italian Romish churches comes as near to my idea of 
what Christian singing ought to be, as to its composi- 
tion and style, as any thing I have heard. This remark 
certainly does not apply to the military music heard in 
one of the churches of Bologna. 

A shrewd-looking man of the middle class was stand- 
ing before me, and followed the monk's sermon with 
close attention ; his countenance expressing wonder and 
dislike on the whole, but sometimes a certain kind of 
doubt. As the congregation was breaking up, I had a 
few words with him, but we were separated in the 
crowd. 

The next morning I found, standing under a portico 
of one of the streets, two Bible colporteurs ; honest, in- 
telligent men from Geneva, friends of Mazzarella, who 
seemed to be diligently doing their work. Had the 
priestly honors claimed by the friar still been accorded 
in Bologna, the first criminals put in prison that day 
would have been these heretic hawkers of the best 
Book. 

While I was talking to them, the man I had spoken 
to in the Cathedral came up, plainly wishing to renew 
the conversation which had only been begun the day 
before. "From what that friar said yesterday about 
priests, one would conclude that your countries, where 
there have been most of them, and they have had most 



162 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

power, must be full of good Christians, and all happi- 
ness ?" " But it is not so," he said ; " it is directly the 
opposite of that. Look at this country^ while it was 
under the government of the priests, the place reeked 
with crimes ; and now Rome and Naples are the two 
countries that abound in crime above all in Europe. 
There is none like them." 

I said that this was quite true ; and that, besides, he 
would find that the countries where once the Roman 
priest, so much lauded yesterday, had possessed all the 
power, but where now, instead of his word, the light of 
that Book which these men were selling had been sub- 
stituted, the returns of criminal courts showed that 
there was no comparison between them and the coun- 
tries where the priests still reigned. Even where a 
country was divided into two parts, as, for instance, Ire- 
land, Switzerland, Germany, there was a conspicuous 
difference in the amount of crime, in the comfort and 
intelligence of the people, between those provinces that 
were or were not under priestly influence ; a difference 
that might be traced even by the eye of a traveler in 
passing from one to the other. "Then," I said, "take 
the period at which the Reformed nations broke off 
from the spiritual dominion of Rome : what were then 
the great powers ? Spain, Portugal, Austria, France, 
the Italian Republics, retained much strength. But 
Prussia was unknown, Russia unheard of, England an 
inconsiderable nation, Holland the subject province of 
Spain, and the other Protestant nations out of account. 



B0L0G2^A. 163 

What had been the course of events since ? Gradually, 
all the nations that had remained under the spiritual 
leading of Rome had either become feeble by internal 
degeneration, as Spain and Portugal, or odious external- 
ly, as Austria, or tormented with incessant revolutions, 
as France. They were all periodically the theatre of 
civil wars ; whereas, the powers free from the spiritual 
domination of Rome had steadily risen, and were going 
on with every promise of increased strength. In the 
New World it was just the same as in the Old; even 
where, in free republics, with virgin continents, and 
more land than could be occupied, men had every ad- 
vantage. What was the disastrous condition of Mexico 
and other states, in which the priests had great power, 
as compared with that of the North American Union 
and the Canadas ? Where did we trace the disorder 
and internecine wars which marked a moral blight, and 
the prosperity and order which betokened the protec- 
tion of God?" 

The exclamations of pleasure and curiosity with which 
he interrupted and hailed these observations led me to 
go on farther. "And suppose you take only the last 
century, that page of history which lies within the 
knowledge of all — what has been the course of things 
during it ? At the beginning of it, Spain and Portugal 
still retained their colonial empires, and much of their 
splendor ; France had great possessions in the East and 
West Indies ; Prussia had but newly become a king- 
dom; England was little more than the British Isles, 



164 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

with just a few colonies in America ; the United States 
were not in existence. Now, within that time, Spain 
and Portugal have lost all their foreign possessions, ex- 
cept some fragments, declined in population, fallen to 
nothing in moral influence, and become the frequent 
theatres of civil conflict. France has passed through 
frightful carnage, committed by neighbor upon neigh- 
bor, and lost all her foreign possessions except Alge- 
ria, which she has taken in compensation. Austria has 
been conquered, and conquered again, and gone through 
rebellions and disruptions, which are wearing her down. 
In the mean time, the non-papal powers have been 
steadily developing, and that very strongly. Russia 
has grown to gigantic proportions ; Prussia has become 
one of the great powers of Europe ; England has added 
nearly as many subjects as all the kings of Europe have 
upon the Continent ; and the United States of America 
have come into existence, and reached their present 
eminence and power." 

The man held his head on one side for a few mo- 
ments, thinking, and then shook it, as if to put the facts 
into their right places ; lifting it up again, he said, " No 
wonder, no wonder ! No ; where Rome has its band 
and its priests, all national interests, and all the order 
of society must be subordinate to the ruling idea — the 
ascendency of the priest over the public mind ; and the 
foundations of manhood are constantly being sapped by 
a band that has no sympathy with national views." 

"But you do not say that of all the priests?" 



BOLOGNA. 165 

"No," he said, "not of all, certainly. There are good 
ones among them, as every where ; but I speak of the 
general influence and drift of the priesthood. There 
must be feebleness and revolutionary elements where 
things are conducted as they conduct them." 

" Speaking of revolutions again," I said, " you find 
that all the modern reyolutions have their centre and 
chief provocation in the countries that lie under the 
priests. Take 1848, for example : what were the thrones 
that fell, and the crowns that had to be abdicated ? In 
France the king chased away; in Austria the crown 
abdicated ; in Bavaria the crown abdicated ; in Sardinia 
the crown abdicated ; in Rome the prince chased away, 
and obliged to employ four armies to force him back 
agxiin upoil his people: but all this time the sovereigns 
of the non-papal world held their own ; and, much as 
some of the states were disturbed, things did not come 
to the point of revolution." 

" Oh, it is true," he cried, " it is true ; and no won- 
der that it is true ! If you only knew the thousandth 
part of what we know in this city, you would have the 
key to it all. I never heard so much said about it m 
the general^hut we know it well in the afiairs of every- 
day life. But what did you think of the friar ?" 

" I thought he was very eloquent, and made the best 
of his cause ; and he seemed to me a bold, honest man." 

It is really painful to watch the expression of counte- 
nance with which an Italian often receives one's decla- 
ration of belief in the honesty or goodness of a priest. 



166 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

It betrays such a want of faith in any honesty as must 
be in itself a terrible moral void in the character. How- 
ever, passing on from this, which he evidently consider- 
ed my weakness, I said, " You heard wonderful praise 
of the priests : did it strike you, while you were listen- 
ing to him, that, in the New Testament, this book which 
these men are trying to spread, neither our Lord nor 
His apostles ever called any minister of the Gospel a 
'priest?'"^ 

" No," he cried ; " surely that can't be !" 

" There is the book. If you take it, and read it 
through, you will find that no one of the twelve apos- 
tles Avas ever called a ' priest ;' that none of their fel- 
low-laborers or their disciples^-none of those whom 
they ordained, or sent out to preach in the world, were 
called ' priests." ' . 

" But is it possible ?" he said. " Who, then, were 
called priests ?" 

'' The Jewish priests were so called, but the Christian 
ministers never. They had no sacrifice to ofier up; 
they had only to act as heralds, proclaiming to the world 
that one sacrifice for all sin had been ofier ed up by that 
one Priest of the human race, the Son of God, who had 
gone up to heaven to intercede for us there day and 
night, our perpetual High-Priest at the right hand of 
the Almighty, to whom every poor man upon earth 
had access, if he but lifted up a trusting and a sincere 
heart." 

* The Italian word is ^^ sacerdotey 



BOLOGNA. 167 

" Oh," he said, '' is it possible ? And there is no talk 
of priests in the IsTew Testament ?" 

"Much talk of Jewish priests, but of Christian priests 
none. There is talk of the minister, the pastor, and 
teacher." In dwelling on his work and office as contra- 
distinguished from that of the priest, I was now and 
then helped out by a very intelligent and earnest ob- 
servation from the colporteiiTs, By this time some peo- 
ple had joined us, and all took an interest in the conver- 
sation ; and some one said, " In England it is not as it 
is here. There are not assassins, and robbers, and all 
the villainy that we have going on." 

" Don't say so," I said. " In England we have crim- 
inals enough — far too many ; and we have much reason 
to be ashamed. Yet it is ground for thankfulness that, 
when we compare the total amount of English crime 
with that returned in Naples and the States of the 
Church, or Spain, or Portugal, or even France, offenses 
against human life are few in comparison. But take 
care that you don't look to England for a model — for 
it is not there — or to America, or to any other country. 
You will find no true model upon earth. The model 
for the Christian is there, in that Book. It is yonder, 
in that heaven, where Jesus Christ reigns, and whence 
He Avill come to judge us all." 

The amount of desire to hear what a foreigner had 
to say on such subjects must be strong when a man will 
stand while one slowly grinds out such observations in 
bad Italian. Any man who knows what it is to hear a 



168 ITALY IN THAKSITION. 

foreigner attempt to argue in slow and broken language 
will form some idea of this. 

The state of feeling with regard to the government 
of the priests indicated in the above conversation seem- 
ed to be universal with all among whom I spoke in 
Bologna. 

" Was the papal government really as bad as they 
said ?" I asked of a professional man. 

" As bad as they said ? They could never say half 
how bad it was. In spite of its permanent effects upon 
the people, the change since its fall is wonderful. The 
place was a den of assassins ; now few homicides occur. 
The police were in league with the robbers, and the 
priests with the police. When a great robbery was 
committed, the culprits, even if imprisoned, were always 
discharged. They got a share, and the authorities a 
share. As to assassination, any man who had commit- 
ted one, if he had only money, could at once make 
friends with the priests, and the evidence broke down, 
and he was set at large. But an honest man who dared 
to think was punished without mercy ; or a poor man 
Avho happened to get into prison, and had no money or 
friends to carry the priests' influence for him, might lie 
there and rot before they even took the trouble to 
bring him to trial." 

At the hotel I said to the waiter, "You appear to 
have many priests in Bologna." " Oh, plenty." " All 
married ?" He looked at me with surprise ; but I seem- 
ed quite innocent. "No, not one of them married." 



BOLOGNA. 169 

" What, none at all ?" " No, on the contrary." " Why, 
how's that ? We find in the Gospel that St. Peter was 
married." 

" Perhaps he was ; I can't say for that ; but in Bologna 
the priests do not marry, and I assure you that all over 
the papal states, wherever I have been — and I have 
been in several places— they don't marry — that is, they 
don't have wives o^QTilj—occultmnenteP 

Considering how notorious Bologna had been for 
crime, how constant the excitement of its people against 
the papal government and the Austrians, and how ar- 
dent the national temperament, one could not but look 
upon the perfect order prevailing in the present revolu- 
tionary time as one of the greatest marvels of modern 
society. Once or twice there had been danger of 
trouble. When Garibaldi, for instance, was recalled, 
the people were greatly excited ; but throughout an en- 
tire night the utmost vigilance was exercised by the 
military and the authorities. The first men of the town 
might be found in the streets, going about talking to 
the people in their own dialect till three o'clock in the 
morning. On another occasion some of the lowest 
class, much like the Lazaroni of Naples, had shown 
signs of restlessness, about which the opinion seemed 
to be that it was stimulated by money and other incite- 
ments from the priests, under pretense of Mazzinian 
aims ; but this also had been easily got over ; and now, 
as before stated, the elections were just completed with 
exemplary quietness. 

H 



170 , ITALY IN tea:n'sitio:n^. 

Count Pepoli, who had taken a leading part in pre- 
serving order, was returned for two places, one in the 
town and one in the country ; and a proof of the readi- 
ness of the priests either to join from patriotic feeling 
in the national movement, or to worship the rising sun, 
lay in this, that the first announcement of his election 
in the distant place came to him in a congratulatory 
letter from a doctor of divinity, anticipating all other 
communications. But probably this priest was one of 
the many whose hearts long to see their country happy, 
and who have not sufficient faith in Rome to believe 
that it is a blessing either to one soul or to a nation. 

Count Marliani, to whoso courtesy I had been much 
indebted, had also been elected, though absent in Lon- 
don. 

I had the opportunity of conversing upon religious 
liberty with a gentleman whose influence in the move- 
ments of Central Italy had been very great. As all 
leading Italians do, he expressed entire resjDCct for free- 
dom of worshijD; at the same time being disposed to 
keep up the spiritual authority of Rome, if only the 
temporal tiould be got rid of. This is natural in men 
who are endeavoring to combine their patriotic duty 
with certain remnants of religious feelings ; but they 
will find that they can not pull down the towers on 
which the church bells swing, and leave them to make 
music in mid air. The great bell of St. Peter's needs a 
solid earthly buttress. 

In speaking of what constituted national stability, I 



BOLOGNA. 171 

argued that three foundations were necessary to the re- 
pose and equilibrium of a nation — a political one, a so- 
cial one, and a religious one. 

The religious foundation, faith. 

The social one, the family. 

The political one, the Constitution. 

All national institutions rest upon the family, and it 
upon religion. 

And " here it appears to me that France is essentially 
deficient. She has not a religious foundation, for want 
of faith ; not a social one, for want of families ; not a 
political one, for want of a Constitution. Instead of all 
these she has substituted military organization, which, 
for the time, is giving her internal order, and a com- 
manding foreign influence; but will it last? All our 
institutions would lose their stability the moment our 
social foundations became loosened. England is the 
land of Home ; France, of Glory : the one rests upon 
the family, the other upon the army ; and it remains to 
be seen which of the two will, in the long run, be the 
better." My interlocutor replied, "The one is based 
on the principle of conservation, the other on that of 
destruction. It is easy to foresee which has the greater 
vitality." 

We had several times remarked, in going through 
the streets, that the people appeared to regard one of 
the ladies of the party with peculiar attention, not un- 
mixed with pleasure. After a while we began to sus- 
pect the cause, and in Bologna had it confirmed. On a 



172 ITALY IN TEANSITIOlSr. 

brown silk dress were certain adornments in a tartan 
pattern, which in England would have attracted no no- 
tice ; but the colors were white, red, and green, the 
Italian tri-color ; so that this innocent dress was nothing 
less than a strong political demonstration. We were 
not a little amused when we discovered it, but after- 
ward saw many ladies who had studiously put on the 
three colors, and yet it was not done near so effectual- 
ly as it had been in this case by accident. In every 
form in which it is possible to work in these three 
colors, you see them ; such as a red handkerchief, green 
bonnet, and white feather, or vice versa; and as the 
name of Cavour is Camillo— and Italy abounds every 
where with extremely beautiful camellias — one of the 
prettiest forms of the tri-color is putting together a 
w^hite and red camellia, surrounded by their own green 
leaves. When we were about to start for Rome, the 
political robe was prudently left behind at Florence. 

It will be remembered that only a few years ago the 
newspapers reported the progress made by the Pope 
through his dominions ; the accounts of congratulatory 
addresses and loyal receptions were affecting. In Bo- 
logna one heard such reports of the papal government 
that it was hard to believe one's ears — I do not mean 
hard to believe the things that were said, for that one 
did not think of; they were incredible — but hard to be- 
lieve that one was hearing such things in Europe. The 
worst deeds of Asiatic misrule that one is wont to hear 
alleged by " Indians" as suiRcient grounds for sweeping 



BOLOGNA. 1^3 

rajahs off the face of the earth, were upon the lips of 
every one, as done here in the heart of Christendom. 
Over and over again one thought, and said, that the 
only value of such representations was that they showed 
what the papal government was considered capable of 
by the people who had lived under it. Several times, 
appealing to the personal virtues of the Pope, one asked 
if he had not been received with enthusiasm when he 
came among them. A man said, " He was at first re- 
ceived with a certain degree of cordiality, because along 
the road, wherever addresses of complaint were pre- 
sented to him, he returned one answer, that when he 
arrived at Bologna he would investigate matters and 
make improvements ; therefore the hopes of the j)eople 
were high, and they did receive him with some warmth. 
But when he had been here a while and nothing was 
done, public feeling changed, and he left amid universal 
contempt." This was the answer of a working-man. 
That of a professional man was, "No, he was not re- 
ceived Avell at all. He was received as became his dig- 
nity. The authorities had orders and money, and got 
up arches and demonstrations. A few of the people, in 
hope of reforms, took part in them ; but even they 
found themselves bitterly disappointed, for he did noth- 
ing ; and, before he left Bologna, when he passed in the 
streets, scarcely any one would take the trouble to raise 
his hat." Instead of repeating here statements as to 
the character of the government which could have no 
other value than to show the feeling of the people, I will 



174 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

give, as published in the "Documents," a case which 
occurred in a city still under papal rule. 

The Three Young Men of Fermo. 

One evening in February, 1849, while the Republic 
was still in power, old Canon Corsi fell, mortally stab- 
bed, in the streets of Fermo. He was professor of elo- 
quence, mild in politics, a friend of the young, kind and 
charitable; the one priest in the town universally re- 
spected. The public was filled with horror; the Na- 
tional Guard arose, and seized upon every suspicious 
man in the place. Appearances were strongly against 
two, who remained in prison. As an example of the 
dark hints one hears breathed in the Roman States, it 
was whisjDcred about Fermo that this deed had been 
planned to produce a reaction in favor of the priests by 
striking the public mind with horror at the murder of 
so good a man. 

After the papal government had been restored, heavy 
blows were dealt to the j)eople of Fermo. "There was 
not a citizen who, during the Republic, had given the 
least sign of adhesion even by simple silence, who was 
not annoyed, or placed under surveillance, or imprison- 
ed, or condemned to the galleys or to exile." But this 
was not enough for Cardinal d'Angelis. Some lives 
must be taken. Three men were especially obnoxious 
to the restored governmept — Joseph Casellini, a young 
man of good family, who had been an officer in the Re- 
publican army ; Ignatius Rosettani, a tailor ; and Henry 



BOLOGNA. 175 

Venezia, a coffee-house man : all of hotly liberal politics, 
but with names unstained by crime. These three youths 
were arrested for the murder of Canon Corsi, as accom- 
plices of the two criminals already in prison. Of those, 
one, called Testori, was an old galley slave, whose life 
had been a tissue of crime. His cell, it was observed 
by the political prisoners, who numbered no less than 
one hundred and thirty-six, soon became the favorite 
resort of the police. Presently he had an extra plate 
of victuals every day ; then his bed was provided with 
a mattress, sheets, and counterpane; and, finally, he 
was allowed the indulgence of cigars. He was also 
frequently taken to the police-office, which was near 
the prison, and, on his return, used privately to show 
money, which had been given to him by his nephew, 
he said. 

It proved that this worthy had sworn information 
against the three young men as accomplices in the mur- 
der of the canon. Two of them met the charge with 
the best evidence they could, but Casselini had a tri- 
umphant answer. He was at the time lying ill of fever, 
and had the evidence of the doctor who attended him ; 
of the druggist who made up the prescriptions; of the 
maid Avho waited upon him ; and of a friend who visit- 
ed hira. Notwithstanding this, his relatives prepared 
a way of escape for him. "No," he said, "there is 
not a shadow of proof against me, and conclusive evi- 
dence in my favor. I must be liberated some time ; and, 
were I to escape, a stain would rest on my character." 



176 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

Every thing that threats and bribes could do was 
tried upon the witnesses to make them retract. The 
doctor, Baronciani, was easily won. He recalled his 
evidence, and from that day lived under the double 
weight of the government patronage and the public 
curse. The friend, Tarini, resisted for a while ; but he 
had a young wife and three children, whom he saw 
plunged into the deepest poverty, and, rather than they 
should starve, he betrayed his friend. There remained 
only the chemist and the maid. The girl was threaten- 
ed with imprisonment for perjury ; but she was brave ; 
into prison she went, and there lay for years. Poor 
old Carlini, the chemist, was so far advanced in age 
that to him a papal prison was certain death ; he must 
either swear away the life of an innocent youth, or lay 
down his own. He did not hesitate ; went to prison, 
and in natural course to the hospital; and there, "in 
the presence of all — of the curate, and of the confessor, 
and of Christ in the sacrament, he swore, 'I die a 
victim of the truth.' " The curate and the confessor 
had the courage to leave to old Carlini a testimony of 
his religious character and praise of his unblemished 
conduct. 

The three young men were condemned to die with 
the two malefactors. On the evening before the exe- 
cution, the Jesuit Castiglioni came to act as confessor ; 
but Testori told him that he did not need to confess, 
for he had promises by which he knew he was not to 
die. When midnight had passed and no pardon had 



BOLOGNA. 177 

come, he began to feel that he, too, was to be executed, 
and then his dark soul quailed at the prospect before 
him. In attendance were some brethren of a confra- 
ternity called that of " Pity," the rules of which bind 
them to attend the last hours of men condemned to 
death. The senior of these was the most revered 
citizen of Fermo — the benevolent old Marquis Trevi- 
sani, stooping under the weight of seventy-four years. 
The culprit had him called ; and in the reverend pres- 
ence of that old man, and of the priest Castiglioni, he 
formally declared that the three youths were innocent 
of the death of Corsi, and that he had been impelled to 
say that they were his accomplices by being told that 
they had been his accusers. 

The old marquis, overwhelmed with this proof of 
villainy, knew too well in what repute he himself was 
held by the government, to think that any interference 
of his would be of advantage to the innocence which 
he saw, in this awful moment, made, by the hand of 
Providence, morally triumphant over the murderous 
power that was striking it down. He urged the con- 
fessor to take a minute of the deposition, and immedi- 
ately to convey it to the archbishop and the delegate ; 
but the Jesuit replied, '' I am here to take confessions, 
not depositions." 

The brothers of the confraternity, who were all noble- 
men, stood weeping like children, for they were every 
one friends of Casellini, and all at that moment impo- 
tent to help, though with the proof of his innocence in 

H2 



178 ITALY IN TEAlSrSITIOISr. 

their hands. The police-officer, whose duty it was to 
take minutes of every thing connected with the execu- 
tion, was called to take down this deposition. He left 
a space in the page on which he was Avriting, and asked 
his superiors if he should write this down. The reply 
was "No." 

When the mournful group arrived at the scaffold, 
what had taken place in private was unknown in the 
city. Few had gone to witness the murder ; but those 
few were thrilled with horror when the Jesuit Castig- 
lioni, commencing the ordinary exhortation, uttered the 
strange words, " It is not always the guilty who die." 
When the heads of the three young men of Fermo fell 
one after another, the Jesuit went away to fall upon a 
sick-bed, the people to say, " It is not always the guilty 
who die." * 

*For the judgment of the court, see ** Documents," vol. ii., p. 
392-396 ; and for the certified narrative given above, vol. ii., p. 
572-577. 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN THE ROMAGNA DURING 

THE TEN YEARS OF RESTORATION, AS 

SHOWN BY OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. 



Oj^t May Ist, 1849, when the French had laid siege to 
Rome, the corporation of Bologna met and adopted a 
formal protest, addressed to General Oudinot and the 
Constituent Assembly of France, against the attempt 
to restore a government "universally condemned by 
experience," and to make of " a people of three millions 
a realm of vassals, cut off from the common rights of 
nations, and held as a feudal tenure for the will and in- 
terests of the Catholic powers."* 

Five days later an Austrian officer presented himself 
to the magistrates of Ferrara, and demanded that they 
should send a deputation with full powers to deliver, 
into the hands of Archbishop Bedini, the submission of 
the city to the pontiff. The magistrates declared that 
they had not power for so grave an action without the 
consent of the corporation. It was summoned, and met 
at 10 o'clock at night, in the presence of four thousand 
Austrian soldiers. Thus surrounded, it. deliberated at 
considerable length, and, by a vote of thirty-seven 
against six, declared that it had received no authority 
to act in so grave a matter. f 

* *'DocumentB," vol. i., p. 13, f Ihid., vol. i., p. 16-19. 



182 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

The Austrian army soon opened an attack upon Bo- 
logna, which was obliged to capitulate. Out of the 
smoke of the battle came forth a ruler for the conquer- 
ed city. He was a priest, an archbishop, the direct rep- 
resentative of the vicar of God : his name was Bedini. 
In a few days he wrote to inform his government that 
he had ventured his sacred person inside the walls ; for, 
he says, "the population was amazed that the repre- 
sentative of the government should always be outside 
the city, surrounded by foreigners." He also stated 
that he had been obliged to accept the services of the 
corporation ; but that it was to be said in their favor 
that they had showed great zeal and activity in the 
cause of order ; and, by several interviews, he had now 
satisfied himself that they were all " choice men." His 
testimony as to the character of this body is to be borne 
in mind.* Moreover, he added, that on another matter 
it was necessary for him to say a word to Cardinal An- 
tonelli. When the Austrian general, as one of the terms 
of capitulation, was agreeing that the troops should not 
be disbanded, provided they would take the oath of 
fidelity to the sovereign, " I mentioned that my instruc- 
tions contained this order — the dissolution of these 
corps ; but the answer to me was that the articles of 
capitulation bound only the Austrian army, and were in 
force during the momentary occupation ; and, on this 
account, I considered my own action free when I should 
come to assume the government of the provinces." 
* * ' Documents, " p. xxxii. , xxxiii. 



THE PAPAL GOVEENMENT OF THE EOMAGISrA. 183 

Thus the new ruler considered, at the very beginning, 
that promises were to bind an Austrian general, but not 
an archbishop. 

On the 27th of July following, the corporation, fore- 
seeing that, in the event of the Pope's return to Rome, 
the Constitution he had granted to the country before 
his flight would probably be revoked, held an evening 
meeting, and recorded its desire " that the restoration 
of the prince should not be unaccompanied with the re- 
establishment of those representative institutions which 
could not be abolished without oppression to the coun- 
try, and that they considered that the maintenance of 
the Constitution would be a sure pledge of conciliation 
and harmony." 

The Austrian commander, Strasoldi, at once wrote to 
Bedini, telling him that the minutes of this sitting must 
be taken possession of, and the authors proceeded 
against ; and that if the archbishop did not feel certain 
of effecting the seizure of the documents without any 
being made away with, he had better leave the matter 
to him, the general. To this Bedini replied that the ac- 
tion ought to be severe ; and that, as he was not quite 
certain, if he took it in hand, but that some of the pa- 
pers might disappear, the general had better act at once. 
Under Austrian orders the police pounced immediately 
upon the officers of the corporation, seized the books, 
discovered that the author of the resolution was Count 
Ranuzzi, took him and the senator of Bologna into cus- 
tody, and fined the members of the corporation who had 



184 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

attended in the sum of two thousand crowns. Bedini, 
apparently foreseeing the effect which this would have 
upon the minds of the people, and upon his future ad- 
ministration in the Romagna, positively wrote to his 
own government to say that he had taken no direct 
part in the proceedings, and had only interposed to mit- 
igate the severity of the Austrians — he had given ex- 
planations and no more. He little thought that this 
lie, and the letter in which he told Strasoldi to take the 
matter into his hands and to act severely, would both 
come under the eye of the men whom he punished, and 
would by them be given to the world.* Thus, at the 
outset, the Pope's representative goaded every leading 
man in the city to implacable hostility, which never re- 
lented so long as the ill-starred restoration continued. 

From the city of Ferrara the delegate writes to his 
superior at Bologna under a difficulty. " Thank God," 
he says, " the Republic is now fallen, and a beginning 
made in restoring the Pope's government in Rome." 
Hence it might be supposed that the official journal, the 
only one now published there, might be introduced into 
the legations ; but as, for the time being, the papal gov- 
ernment is not restored " in its plenitude and independ- 
ence," he is not sure w^hether he may have " full confi- 
dence in the rectitude of the principles" which may be 
set forth in that print. This, be it remembered, was 
the only print the people could see, and was directly 
official. 

* **Pocuments," vol. i., p. 144, 145, 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE KOMAGNA. 185 

The restored government published a document which 
it called an amnesty, offering pardon to all who were 
not excepted; but the exceptions were tremendous. 
Among them were named the chiefs of corps, or gen- 
eral officers ; and the way that this part of the compact 
was kept may be seen by the following statement of 
the Cavaliere Gennarelli.* 

There presented himself at Bologna a Lieutenant 
Colonel Cocchi, who in the capitulation of Ancona, 
which he had defended, obtained, with others his com- 
panions, from the Austrian army, promise of life and 
liberty. But Monsignor, representative of the Pope, 
did not wish to hear much talk about keeping faith, or 
respecting in any manner people whom the country 
might love. He commanded the arrest of Cocchi ; but 
he, being advised of it, kept out of the way. Then it 
was that his uncle, unknown to him, went to General 
Marziani, to whom he told the fact, presenting to him 
the so-called Decree of Amnesty of Pius IX., absolving 
officers who were not chiefs of corps, and the capitula- 
tion of Ancona. Although Austrian, General Marziani 
fumed. 

"What does the priest say?" he asked the Advocate 
Cocchi, who was speaking with him. {The priest was 
Monsignor Bedini.) 

" He says to his constables" (answered Cocchi) " to 
carry my nephew to prison." 

* Lutti dello Staio Romano ^ p. 1., li. 



186 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

" Is it possible ? But he was not a general officer." 

" Monsignor Bedini will have found in some theolog- 
ical book that lieutenant colonels are general officers." 

" And the capitulation ?" 

" That is a matter which concerns you, general." 

" I will write to him immediately; and if you do me 
the favor to come to me in a few days, I shall have his 
answer." 

The Advocate Cocchi returned. The Austrian gen- 
eral, seeing him, said, " Mr. Advocate, the priest has not 
replied to me, but your nephew may go at large ; no- 
body will touch him. In any case, it would be an affair 
of a few minutes." 

" Nobody did touch him. We who heard this story 
from the Advocate Cocchi afterward found the letter 
of General Marziani, and those of other Austrian gener- 
als, who bitterly reproved the pontifical government for 
the military proscription, which, to strike majors, lieu- 
tenant colonels, heads of squadrons, and staff-officers, 
classed them all as chiefs of corps. This as general riile^ 
but in fact officers and soldiers of all ranks were con- 
stantly exposed to all the phrensy of the Antonelli po- 
lice." 

In November, 1850, eleven prisoners, who had been 
lying for eighteen months at Forh, without even being 
brought to examination, prevailed upon a bishop to en- 
treat the apostolic delegate to give them a trial. He 
replies that he is very sorry " not to be able in any way 
to accede to his recommendation, because these prison- 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 187 

ers are within the direct jurisdiction of superior author- 
ities, whom he has not failed already to entreat to take 
some step with regard to them."* 

A year later, the Prelate Stephen Rossi, with his own 
hand, wrote the following to the Governor of Faenza. 
" I have gathered from your political note that you have 
put into prison some boys, who allowed themselves to 
insult one Nunziati of the borough, and that you have 
ordered them to be put occasionally upon bread and 
water. I feel that it is always necessary to use prompt 
and severe remedies for similar faults, because, in such 
a city as Faenza, a little spark between the people of 
the borough and those of the city may have fatal conse- 
quences, unless strongly put down at the beginning. 
Therefore I applaud the punishment you have inflicted, 
and I instruct you not to discontinue it without my or- 
ders ; and to place them upon bread and water twice a 
week. Farther, it would be desirable that you should 
come to an understanding with the Austrian command- 
ant in regard to similar annoyances, especially among 
young people. You ought to engage the commandant 
to use prompt and efficacious punishments whenever a 
fact of this kind occurs, and when the age and constitu- 
tion of the person will bear it. In prison, young men 
rather get worse than become humbled ; and if, instead 
of it (imprisonment), the Austrian captain would sub- 
ject them to a punishment which on several accounts 
is repugnant to them, we should have no fear of the re- 
* *' Documents," vol. ii., p. 590. 



188 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

newal of such faults." In the original, which remains 
in the archives of Ravenna, instead of reading as the 
copy found at Faenza, " a punishment which on several 
accounts is repugnant to them," it says, " which is re- 
pugnant to them on account of the shame and the pain ;" 
but the worthy prelate canceled these words and sub- 
stituted the others. 

The "prompt and efficacious punishment" thus 
smoothly recommended to the Austrians by the priests 
was none other than that of the bastinade.* 

The establishment of this penalty required a j)eculiar 
officer, and accordingly we find that such was discover- 
ed. The terms of his appointment are taken from a 
criminal trial which was still proceeding when the 
" Documents" were printed. " Louis Bazzigotti, who 
twelve separate times had been imprisoned, and seven 
times convicted of theft, breach of ban, and swindling, 
after having endured the sentence, was, either in the 
year 1850 or 1851, imprisoned anew, by way of precau- 
tion. At this time he undertook the employment of 
cudgel-man, with the monthly pay of fifteen pauls, be- 
sides double rations;" but Signor Bazzigotti himself 
puts out of doubt the important question of the date 
in his noble history by saying in his examination that 
it was "on the 15th of May, 1851, by appointment of 
his Excellency Monsignor Bedini, communicated to 
him by the Cavaliere Curzi, that he was employed as 
bastinader, and that he is a Catholic." However, good 
* " Documents," vol. ii., p. 608. 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 189 

times did not always last with Signor Bazzigotti : after 
he had conducted himself very Avell for two or three 
years, cudgeling his brother Catholics, he made earnest 
application to be allowed to go out to see his family, 
promising to return the same day. However, he took 
a ramble into the country, changed his name, professed 
himself a police agent, and extorted money from sever- 
al people. He was again caught, and carried back to 
the prison, and then he had to exercise his Catholic 
ministry as bastinader without any salary. After an- 
other year of good conduct he had his wages restored, 
and continued in the full enjoyment of fifteen pauls, 
with double rations, and the privilege of bastinading, 
under the direct sanction of bishops and archbishops, 
up to the 29th of May, in the year of grace 1859.* 

The condition to which this sort of administration 
brought the subjects of His Holiness may be gathered, 
now and then, from the remonstrances made by the 
secular oificials to those in authority. For instance, 
under date of the 16th of July, 1853, the local Governor 
of Faenza thus writes : 

'' Most reverend Excellency, 
''Yesterday I went to the prisons for an extrordina- 
ry visit. My heart was wrung with grief. Without 
counting those in other prisons, I here found ninety-one. 
Very few of them are under trial ; several are in the 
jurisdiction of the Austrians, several under that of the 
* ** Documents, '' vol. ii., p. 95, 96. 



190 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

Sacra Consulta (a high Roman court), but the greater 
part are imprisoned for precaution, without having been 
examined, without having been charged, and probably 
without being suspected. Some have been confined for 
months, some for years, some for lustres. This is a 
bleeding wound, and the real cause of the discontent, of 
the hatred against the authorities, and the spite against 
the government. Crime can not be conquered in this 
way by striking in the lump : the people can not in this 
way be drawn to love the august sovereign. For the 
last sanguine facts, three individuals have been arrested 
by the governor and mayor, by order of the public 
prosecutor, and those only have been examined. By 
order of the delegate, twelve others were arrested for 
precaution, but these have nothing to do with those ; 
either the one or the other are innocent. The outcry 
is almost general. It is necessary that as to this some 
firm and rigorous, but just step should be taken ; have 
the goodness to tell me what, otherwise I shall not be 
able to wipe the tears of a hundred families, that are 
lamenting the imprisonment of parents, of husbands, or 
sons, and of those hundreds of families that are lan- 
guishing in poverty because of the absence of the per- 
son arrested. 

"When I looked into the records of the court I found 
a mournful void; four hundred and fifty cases have 
been pendmg from four to five years and more. I do 
not wish to take possession of such a troublesome in- 
heritance ; but at least I do not wish to let the cases 
that can be heard, sleep." 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 191 

Then the poor man goes on to "beg for help, that he 
may have some means of expediting matters.* 

It is not to be supposed that the officials felt them- 
selves under the obligation of proceeding with the cau- 
tious forms of justice habitual in civilized countries. 
For instance, a certain captain at Cesena writes to the 
governor to report that some of his men have arrested 
one Ricci on the charge of having been insolent to 
them, and the governor leaves this record upon the 
case : " That, considering the report made to him, and 
the want of proof by which he could judicially condemn 
Ricci, he orders that he shall be imprisoned for eight 
days by way of correction, with the injunction that he 
shall have one day the ordinary prison allowance, and 
the alternate day bread and water."f 

One would have thought that such a government 
would at least have had the advantages of expedition. 

In the town of Forli, when some executions were 
taking place contrary to all justice, the people shut their 
shops, and for this seventy-two of them were fined in 
sums ranging from three to forty crowns. 

The government never succeeded in bringing the 
authorities in Bologna fairly under its hand ; and ac- 
cordingly we find that the court there, in the year 
1856, losing all patience at the kind of cases that 
were brought before it, put upon record the judgment 
found in the Appendix, in which, instead of convict- 
ing the prisoners, it declares the police guilty of tor- 

* ''Documents," vol. i., p. 42, 43. ^Ibid, vol. ii., p. 580. 



192 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

ture, of extorting false confessions, and of complicity 
in crimes * 

The connection of the police with robbers, and the 
instigation of crime on the part of the authorities, is an 
idea so familiar to the minds of the people who have 
lived under the papal government that a stranger can 
hardly believe that it is any thing more than a morbid 
state of suspicion ; but this judgment does too much to 
accredit it ; and fouler instances are found in these doc- 
uments, but we give this, as coming with the gravity 
of a formal decision from a court composed of judges 
chosen by Rome. 

The follow^ing document only echoes the hundred 
hints that one hears among the people: it does not 
prove that the government was guilty of the turpitude 
mentioned ; it only proves that its own officers took it 
for granted it might be. It is to be found at page 606 
of the second volume. 

"P. S. P. 

" Most illustrious Sir, 
'' It havhjg come to the knowledge of this division 
of police that the court of Rome has written to the 
friars of your country, inviting them to kill some Aus- 
trians belonging to the garrison stationed in the fort 
there, with a view to cause the principle of non-inter- 
vention to be broken through, and that the Austrians 
might rush in upon our provinces to avenge an outrage 
* Appendix C. 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE KOMAGNA. 193 

which would be laid to the charge of the country peo- 
ple as an eflfect of the revolution ; I pray you, illustri- 
ous sir, to have the goodness to inform me if this news 
is certain, that I may take the necessary resolutions in 
the matter for the good of our cause. Also, I should 
pray you to keep up an official correspondence with 
this section, in order to the advantage of our common 
affairs, and I assure you that I shall always be ready to 
give you such statements as may be necessary." 

Signed "G. Della Scala;" dated "Ravenna, 22d 
February, 1831;" and directed "To the Political Sec- 
tion at Ferrara." 

The great inconvenience of the papal government 
was that it had subjects. It executed a great many — 
more, indeed, than all the other governments in Europe 
put together, Austria excepted ; it imprisoned as many 
as it could, until there was no more room ; and it exiled 
not a few.* 

* Gennarelli says, ** Monsieur de Corcelles, in his book on the 
pontifical government, dares to print the following words : * From 
two to three hundred might have been expelled according to the 
terms of the amnesty first promulgated, but afterward amended and 
made milder. However, those were reduced to thirty-eight. The 
words " chief of a corps" were interpreted in a way not to designate 
more than eight or nine superior officers.' And in a note he add- 
ed, * Twenty members of the Constituent Assembly embarked for 
France and Piedmont October 1st; fifteen of those who were com- 
promised left by steam-boat on the 5th of October, and three oth- 
ers a little later. The category of ^'chiefs of corps" only led to two 

I 



194 ITALY IN TKANSITION. 

In addition to all these, another expedient occurred- 
to the governmg mind of Bedini. We find a letter 
from no less a person than Radetzky himself, in which 
he acknowledges that he has received the archbishop's 
proposal to enroll in the Austrian army those papal sub- 
jects who gave cause to fear that they might disturb 
the public tranquilUty. The field-marshal tells the arch- 
bishop that his authority is not sufficient to decide upon 
this proj)osal, but he refers it to Vienna. Then comes 
a second letter, in which the generous ofier is rather 
harshly declined; its most reverend author being told 
that the government does not wish to "destroy the ex- 
emplary spirit of the imperial army." However, he 
had another expedient. The papal soldiers were afflict- 
ed with a disease, the chief symptom of which was de- 
sertion ; and we find the Austrian general Gravert re- 
plying to an application of the same fertile Bedini, and 
telling him that he could not undertake to try these 
deserters in the Austrian courts, for that it was a pure- 
ly military offense, and therefore the archbishop must 
deal with them himself by pontifical law. To Cardinal 
Antonelli he makes the simple proposal that they should 
get every province garrisoned with Austrians, without 
which, he says, " every effort is vain for the restoration 

exiles.' I don't know," says Gennarelli, "if lies were ever told 
with so mucli hardihood. We beg Monsieur de Corcelles and the 
Bishop of Orleans to read, among the documents of the pontifical 
government, the statistics of the Constituent Assembly and of the 
chiefs of corps exiled." — Lutti dello Stato Romano^ p. 54. 



THE PAPAL GOVEENMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 195 

of the government upon a sound principle and a basis 
of order." The only other matter he suggests in the 
same letter is that a treaty should be concluded with 
some power for sending a convenient number of incon- 
venient subjects across the Atlantic. He thinks North 
America would be the best place. Algeria is not favor- 
ed — perhaps too near — and something or other decides 
him against South America. He has gone so far as to 
send to Vienna for a person acquainted with the United 
States, in order that he might give the government the 
necessary information.* 

Zealous as the archbishop was in his efforts to rid 
the papal territory of the bad burden of thinking men, 
he had subordinates who considered him tame. In 
April, 1854, from Faenza, we find a commandant of 
geiis-cVarmes fuming at the restraint under which he 
lies, and treating the measures of Monsignor Bedini as 
any thing but vigorous. It is to be remembered that 
at this very time, according to a document already 
quoted, there were more than four hundred cases not 
even tried in the prisons of Faenza, which is only a 
place of twenty thousand inhabitants. But the brave 
Major Dominicis writes to the apostolic delegate at Ra- 
venna, that " if he had in December last written to the 
legate that he must send two hundred persons across 
the seas, and if, since then, he had verbally told the 
apostolic delegate that it would be better to send three 
hundred, it was because he had turned the matter well 
* ** Documents, "vol. i., p. 175, 176. 



196 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

over in his mind ; and now he is prepared to say that 
they must select fom- hundred of the most dangerous, 
and send them off." But then, he says, to propose to 
arrest three hundred at once is useless, seeing that dif- 
ficulties were raised about the first twenty, and the sec- 
ond thirty, and they even hesitated to arrest forty-one. 
Therefore, to propose the taking of three hundred to- 
gether would only be to expose themselves to reproach 
as to the impotency of their efforts, " which impotency 
will never cease as long as the half measures lately 
adopted are continued," which some may think to be 
efficacious ones, but which, according to his short sight, 
" are only a lenitive plaster laid upon a limb eaten with 
cancer."* 

The official journal of Rome of the 2 2d of March, 
1851, quoted in the "Documents," sets itself to repel 
the charge that the papal government is unable to keep 
down disorder, and declares, " We will now place mat- 
ters in their true aspect, dealing with facts and not with 
vain words. Can it be denied that in the governments 
of Faenza and Imola, as the result only of two trials, 
eighty-two persons were shot ; besides whom ten oth- 
ers obtained commutation of a similar sentence into that 
of the galleys, and thirteen others were condemned to 
temporary or perpetual prison ?" Hence the official 
journal argues that the papal government is vigorous 
and fully able to maintain order ! What follows I dare 
not write in words of my own. Gennarelli says, " The 
* ** Documents," voL i.. p. 205. 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 197 

official journal might have added that the times were 
improving, because another judge at Ravenna condemn- 
ed eight hundred in a single sentence ; and this judge, 
moreover, was a cardinal of the Holy Roman CathoUc 
Church, and was called Rivarola, who died a few years 
ago."* 

If the judges and superior officers were such, we may 
tell what the subordinates would be. From the har- 
rowing evidence before us, we will only take one exam- 
ple. f It is an extract from the depositions in a process 
at law. In 1853, one of the witnesses, named Cussini, 
says : " The officer of police, Paganini, had me taken 
down into a cellar by six or seven of his men, where he 
made them cover my mouth and beat me with sticks, in 
order that he might teach me what I was to say; and 
then he began to recount to me, part by part, this crime 
of house-breaking ; and, for fear of being further bastin- 
aded, I assented to every thing." The same witness, at 
a subsequent examination, said, " The sub-constables 
will themselves tell you that several days Paganini had 
me taken into his own office, and there, armed with a 
knife, he threatened to cut my throat ; and he did give 
me some slight wounds, insisting that I should confess 
a crime that I did not know. He took me by the hair, 
he kicked me ; he gave me blows with his fist, and he 
beat me in every possible way." Another witness says, 
" He kept me closely confined for fourteen days, mak- 

* Lutti dello Stato Romano^ p. xxxix. 
t ** Documents," vol. ii., p. G04. 



198 ITALY IN TKANSITION. 

ing me hear every night the beatings that he gave to 
the other prisoners ; and making me observe that he set 
his great dog upon those wretches, and it bit them. 
He told me that he should treat me in the same way if 
I did not tell the truth as to the house-breaking at 
Olma ; and then I had to say not only what was true, but 
also what Paganini wished, in order to exempt me from 
the cruelties which he used to the others. The cudgel- 
ing employed by Paganini is indescribable, and any 
body would tell what is not true to escape it." This 
evidence is confirmed by that of one of the sub-consta- 
bles, who describes the manner of action. He says 
that the " officer put a handkerchief into the mouth of 
the prisoner that he was going to flog; then he rolled 
a sheet about his head, in order that his howls should 
not be heard ; that he had done this with Cussini, and 
then beat him with sticks, at which I was present sev- 
eral times, as also three other sub-constables," whom he 
names. " I take it that in treating the prisoners in this 
way he had the orders of the governor, of whom he is 
a great friend, and also of the superiors in Bologna." 
Another sub-constable says that the blows of the stick 
given to Cussini amounted to sixty. 

Amid all these horrors enacted by the priests in tem- 
poral government, they did not neglect spiritual mat- 
ters. In March, 1850, a convention of cardinals, bish- 
ops, and archbishops met in Loretto, ai)d adopted an 
edict which, by authority of the Pope, was republished 
in the Lent of 1856. This is directed against the prev- 



THE PAPAL GOVEENMENT OF THE EOMAGl^-A. 199 

alent sins of the country, especially against blasphemy, 
non-observance of holy days, profanity in churches, vio- 
lation of fasts, and immorality. The decrees will be 
found in the Appendix.* It is enacted that all insults 
offered to the name of God, or the Virgin, or the saints, 
shall be punished by imprisonment from ten to thirty 
days — a slur upon St. Anthony and an offense against 
the thrice holy name being joined together : for a sec- 
ond fault, the penalty shall be heavier, and prison fare 
be sometimes changed for bread and water. In case of 
obstinacy, the full penalties of the canon law must come 
in " at the will of the ordinary." All those strokes to 
be laid on at the private will of a single man ! Keep- 
ers of coffee-houses, hotels, public houses, and eating- 
houses are bound to reprove and turn out blasphemers ; 
and, if they can not do so, immediately to give informa- 
tion to the Holy Office ; " and failing this, they will be 
proceeded against with the greatest rigor." 

It is carefully stated that the penalty here expressed 
does not apply to persons who deliberately utter any 
thing heretical ; that they are not simply blasphemers, 
but heretics, or suspected of heresy ; and that these 
must be proceeded with, not summarily, as the others, 
but by canon law ; and, under pain of excommunication 
in the largest sense, all are charged to inform upon any 
persons whom they have ever heard uttering heretical 
blasphemies. 

The non-observance of holy days is to be punished 
* Appendix D. 



200 ITAXT IN TRANSITION. 

with a fine of from five pauls to three scudi (from two 
to twelve shillings), and with imprisonment of from two 
to twelve days ; the penalty to be doubled for a repeti- 
tion of the offense. Those who do not keep the fasts 
are to be punished with the very same penalties. It is 
formally stated that " the names of informers and wit- 
nesses will be kept secret ;" and immediately following 
this are the words, " The fines shall go, half for the ben- 
efit of sacred buildings, as appointed by the ordinary, 
and the other half shall be divided between the inform- 
er and the police, if they have had to do with the case ;" 
and then comes the provision that if the punishment is 
not fine, but imprisonment, the person convicted, if he 
has the means, shall pay fifty baiocchi (about two shil- 
lings) to the informer and the police. To these decrees 
are placed the names of three cardinals, four archbish- 
ops, and twelve bishops. This incitement and bribe to 
spy and inform is to be put up in the sacristy of every 
parish church, and in all the houses of entertainment in 
the country. 

The " Documents" contain a decree of an inquisitor 
general, which will also be found in the Appendix,* in 
which he lays upon all the duty of informing not only 
against heretics, but those who are suspected or report- 
ed to be such, or favorers, or receivers, or defenders of 
them ; and in this respect the poor heretics are put in 
a much worse position than Jews, Mohammedans, and 
heathens, because, in their case, nothing is said about 
persons who are "suspected," or "reported," or who 
* Appendix E. 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE ROMAGNA. 201 

" favor," " receive," or " defend" them, but simply of 
the open criminals themselves. Another matter upon 
which all good subjects are bound to inform, with the 
certainty of having their neighbors punished and their 
own names kept secret, is against all who have done 
" any thing from which can be inferred an express or 
tacit compact with the devil, by exorcising, incantations, 
magic, witchcraft, or offering to him odors, incense, or 
prayers to find treasure, or doing any thing else in which 
his name and work comes in." Kaffiirland and Italy are 
close together ! 

In addition to all these edicts is another from the 
Bishop of Senigagli, the native city of Pio Nono, in 
which he enacts that young persons affianced shall not 
be permitted to have private interviews before they are 
married, or give or receive presents ; and all parents or 
heads of families are held accountable for preventing 
disobedience ; and it is positively added, immediately 
after, that every person who breaks this law will be 
punished with fifteen days' imprisonment, and he must 
maintain himself at his own expense ; the presents shall 
be forfeited, and applied to such pious uses as may be 
appointed ; and then follows, in case of obstinacy, the 
more terrible but less tangible punishment of excommu- 
nication. 

All this seems very horrible as a means of demoraliz- 
ing society, setting neighbor against neighbor, and mak- 
ing every foot tread as if every step was over the hollow 
echoing chambers of the Inquisition. 

12 



202 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

The question naturally comes, " Does any thing prac- 
tical ever arise from this in our day ?" If you turn to 
vol. i., p. 316, of these "Documents," you will find that 
in Bertinora, a city of four thousand inhabitants, the 
court, composed of five judges, a vicar-general, an arch- 
deacon, and three others, tried Baptist Orlati under the 
charge of irreverence in church, insulting a priest, and 
uttering heresy. The very words of their own sentence 
charge him with only these ofienses : attending with 
disrespect, and without due reverence, in the holy tem- 
ple, during the celebration of the Divine mysteries ; re- 
fusing to give homage to God ; showing himself contin- 
ually sitting with his cap on his head, in church, even 
while the most holy host was elevated for the adoration 
of the faithful. When he was charitably admonished 
by the reverend chief priest, he did not hesitate to utter 
vile language, and this to the great scandal of the peo- 
ple assembled in the church ; and, in fine, he uttered 
heretical words, saying that Jesus Christ was one who 
did not know all, or could not know all, because He 
would then have sent His apostles to preach in the New 
World, which was not discovered ; and also expressing 
himself that he believed in nothing but death, because 
it is the end of life, and there is neither paradise nor 
hell. 

These, then, are the charges of which this man was 
held guilty. He was rich, educated, and, his judges say, 
keen and clever in business. And to what is he sen- 
tenced ? First, to five years in the galleys, for his ii-- 



THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 203 

reverence in churcli : on this point the court was not 
unanimous, one judge demurring. For the second of- 
fense, of insulting the priest, he is sentenced to a year 
of imprisonment after the expiration of his five years, 
and that unanimously ; and for the third offense, of ut- 
tering heresy, to another year of imprisonment, to begin 
at the end of the sixth ; and this too, it would appear, 
was unanimous. Let it be repeated, that the date of 
this judgment was "Bertinora, the 21st of June, 1855." 
In the Lutti dello Stato Romano^ at p. 67, we have the 
following narrative : 

Punishment for Blasphemy. 

In the city of Fermo, two citizens were accused of 
blasphemy. The bishop commanded them to be bound 
and put in prison; afterward, on a high day, he had 
them carried to an open place outside the city gates. 
They were made to kneel down, and the mordacchia 
was placed on the lips of one and on the tongue of the 
other. One died not many hours after having under- 
gone the punishment, and the life of the other was in 
great danger. For strangers who may be ignorant of 
it, we will tell what the mordacchia is. It is formed 
of two rods, which at the two extremities can be com- 
pressed together by the force of steel springs. The 
mouth of the sufferer being opened, his hands and feet 
tied, and he made to put out his tongue, the tongue it- 
self is pressed between the rods closed by the springs. 
Thus the wretcli remains with his tongue out of his 



204 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

mouth, tortured by that barbarous instrument. Little 
by little the tongue enlarges, and thrusts out the lips. 
If the victim should refuse to put out the tongue, the 
executioners take his lips, and press them between the 
two steel springs ; so that the mouth remains closed 
against respiration, the steel springs stick to the lips, 
and the anguish of the sufferer can not vent itself by 
cries, and escapes only through the eyes, the color of 
the face, and frequently by a paroxysm of convulsion. 
In the execution at Fermo, a doctor declared that the 
men tortured would die in less than an hour unless the 
punishment ceased. The barbarity, however, was car- 
ried to such an extent as to compel them to walk to the 
prison (a mile) with the mordacchia^ through which, as 
we have said, one of them, Luigi Tacchi, died a few 
hours after. 

One of the last men with whom I talked in Bologna, 
looking out of an eye where consumption gleamed, said, 
" Sir, the Almighty is tired of Rome." 



n X. 



THE APENNINES. 



Looking at the map, one is led to ask how much of 
the space between Bologna and Florence is occupied 
by the mountains ; but the fact is, that, whatever the 
map may suggest, the whole is only the Apennines. In 
nature a chain of mountains is not the same regular 
thing as upon- a map: it spreads itself out and out; 
subsiding ranges falling off from the great central one, 
until gradually the plain is reached. When the barrier 
is a river, near the shore it is shallow, and in the middle 
deep ; so, when it is a mountain, near the edges it is 
low, and in the middle high. By vetturino^ the journey 
occupies nearly two days. At a short distance from 
the gates of Bologna you become engaged in the hills, 
and while you are upon their last slopes the Queen of 
the Arno is delighting your eyes. Our vetturino had a 
young friend whom he got or took permission to carry 
to Florence, so that, altogether, we made seven for the 
mountains. 

The scenes were of ravines, torrents, ridges, peaks, 
slopes, steeps, and windings ; the view now narrowing 

* A coachman who carries you in his own carriage for a journey, 
however long. 



208 ITALY liST TEANSITI02^. 

to a few yards, now sweeping over tracts of mountain 
wild, now going out and away over territories where, 
deeply down and distant on the plain, cities showed 
white like the curling waves of the far-off sea. Every 
now and then two oxen were yoked before our five 
horses, and tugged away honestly. Cultivation strug- 
gled with the mountains. Every few miles, a flat-roofed 
village of big but very dirty and uncomfortable houses. 
At Pianoro I got out, went about the vUlage, and made 
friends with a boy in a smithy. It was as clean and 
nice as any smithy I ever saw. The bellows were really 
grand, made of oak, with fine brass nails, and well-pre- 
served leathers, and kept cleaner than the tables in ho- 
tels — a gentlemanly pair of big bellows. The people 
generally looked pretty well fed and clothed, but they 
begged almost like Neapolitans. At one village a num- 
ber of rosy children were whining for " something ;" 
but one fine little fellow stood by, beside his father, 
asking nothing. I called him, gave him half a paul, 
and took care to tell him that it was because he did 
not beg. Oh, what joy! and the father seemed as 
pleased as the child. He cried, " The signer gives him 
half a paul because he asked nothing. Ecco !" The 
other men standing by evidently felt the rebuke, but 
did not seem to like it. 

The first time I got out to have a walk, a decent 
mountaineer said, " You will have tough work to cross 
the mountain to-day ; it blows so hard that, high up, it 
will almost upset your carriage. The last few days it 



THE APEISTNINES. 209 

has been terrible; even the mails were stopped." It 
did blow ; but I said nothing about the prophecy of an 
upset, and happily, excepting some personal discomfort, 
we had no bad effects from the wind. " No brigands?" 
I asked. " Oh no, none : while we were under the priests 
there were plenty of brigands, but since the Italian gov- 
ernment came into power, none." 

The young friend of the vetturino, as we tugged up 
a hill together, said, without being asked, " You see, 
signor, the effect of the change from the government of 
the priests. This road used always to be dangerous, 
robberies going on every day ; now, none." 

The vetturino himself told one of the ladies that the 
priests used to disguise themselves as brigands, and do 
a little business on their own account; but this was, 
doubtless, only an illuminated edition of the common 
story, that the robbers shared spoils with them. When 
the young man already alluded to was saying these ter- 
rible things of the priests, I reminded him that he must 
not lay all their faults against religion. 

" Oh," he said, "no; you must not think that I am an 
atheist. I am a Catholic ; but I can not profess to be- 
lieve all the things that they teach us. There is a deal 
of nonsense that no thoughtful man can believe ; but 
still I do believe in God and in Christ." 

" Then how do you account for it that there are so 
many things you call superstitions and follies, if you say 
you still believe ?" 

This seemed a point that he had not gone into, and 



210 ITALY IN TEAI^SinON. 

he asked me how it was. "The matter is simply this : 
religion, as the apostles planted it, was just as if it had 
been sent down from heaven ; and it had been. It took 
root upon our earth, a Divine and beneficent thing, and, 
had its principles been steadily adhered to, would have 
regenerated all human society. Instead of that, those 
princii3les were gradually overlaid with corruptions 
adopted from the old superstitions of this country and 
other countries. To this was added the invention of 
doctrines. By these two, mark, by corruption and in- 
vention, one change and another came in, until now the 
whole is so altered that it is very difficult to discover 
the original. It can only be found by going back to 
the Word of God, and studying, in the writings of the 
apostles themselves, what sort of ministers they were, 
and what the churches they founded ; and that is what 
all you Italians must do." 

" Well, signor," he said, " we often say that the re- 
ligion of the Pope is not the religion of Jesus Christ, 
and yet we do not want to give up Jesus Christ ; but 
I suppose it is as you say, that things have been 
changed." 

" Yes, almost every thing has been changed." 

" What has been changed, signor ?" 

'^Wbrshi}? has been changed. It was a purely spir- 
itual worship ; now Christian temples are full of images, 
and before these men and women are taught to say 
their prayers. It was in every man's own tongue, a 
service of singing, praying, preaching, and in private 



THE APENNINES. 211 

meetings of mutual exhortation and fellowship ; now it 
is a mystic ceremony in an unknown tongue. The 
ministry has been changed. It was a ministry of pas- 
tors and teachers, whose business it was to instruct the 
people, and show them Christian examples of all per- 
sonal and domestic virtues. This has been changed 
into a priesthood, which professes to repeat the sacri- 
fice of the Son of God : they never marry, and give 
► themselves out as constituting an infallible body, to 
whom men must implicitly submit their consciences." 

" Ah !" he growled, " that is a change." 

" The sacraments have been changed. Of old, the 
very name of the Lord's Supper was the breaking of 
bread. The disciples both ate of the bread and drank 
of the wine ; now, as to the cup, they do not even give 
it to the people ; and as to the bread, it is a wafer, so 
made that it shall not be broken. Besides this, they 
have added five other sacraments to the two that were 
instituted by our Lord." 

" Dear me, any thing else changed ?" 

" Yes ; the mode of finding absolution is changed." 

"Ah!" 

" In the days of the apostles, when a man asked what 
he was to do to find pardon, he was told to repent of 
his sins,^nd to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now 
they have changed repentance into doing penance ; and 
instead of telling men simply to believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, they tell them to go in private, and con- 
fess all to a priest, and then believe too ; and the priest 
privately pronounces absolution." 



212 ITALY IN TRANSITION*. 

" And do you say that the apostles did not do 
that?" 

I looked at him as calmly as I could, and said, '' Look 
into my face, and see if you can trust me." 

" Yes, signer," he said, " I can." 

" Did you ever read the New Testament ?" 

" Never." 

" Well, then, I have read it every word, over and 
over again, and I can tell you that in it all there is not 
a word about any of the twelve apostles ever having 
taken a man to confess to himself, or sent him to con- 
fess to any priest whatever, that he might obtain the 
priest's absolution. There is no such word." 

" There is no such word ! Oh dear ! what a change ! 
Any thing else changed ?" 

"Yes," I said, "there is something changed, perhaps, 
that you would not think of; even the Commandments 
of God are changed. Do you know the Command- 
ments of God?" 

"Oh yes !" he said, " I know the Commandments ol 
God." 

" Will you repeat them ?" 

He said, " You know there are ten Commandments 
of God, and five of the Church : which do you mean ?" 

" I mean the Ten Commandments of God." 

" Yes," he said, " I know them." 

" But, first of all, will you tell me what the five Com- 
mandments of the Church are ? Which do you learn 
first in the Catechism ?" 



THE APENNINES. 213 

" Oh ! in the Catechism, we first learn the five Com- 
mandments of the Church." 

" Well, tell me what they are." 

"1. Hear mass every Sunday, and on other appoint- 
ed feasts. 2. Fast on the days appointed, and do not 
eat meat on Friday or Saturday. 3. Confess at least 
once in the year, and take the Communion at Easter. 
4. Do not marry in forbidden times. 5. Pay the tithes." 

" Then these," I said, " are the Commandments of 
the Church?" 

"Yes, the five Commandments of the Church." 

" And you are taught them before the others ?" 

" Yes ; the others are the Ten Commandments of 
God." 

"Very well ; what are they ?" 

" 1. I am the Lord thy God ; thou shalt have no oth- 
er God before Me. 2. Thou shalt not take the name 
of God in vain." 

I said, "Are you sure you are correct?" 

" Yes, sir," he said, " quite sure. Yes." 

" What, then, is the third ?" 

" Remember that you keep holy the feasts." 

" Are you sure you are right ?" 

"Oh yes."* 

* The form of the second and third commandments, as given in 
the Catechism, often varies. It will be seen that the form here re- 
peated is an abridgment such as may be found in many editions 
of the Dottrina Christiana, or Popular Church Catechism, in Italy. 
In the copy now before me they stand thus : 



214 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

" Then what is the fourth ?" 

" Honor your father and mother." 

" Now," I said, " are you quite sure you are right as 
to the second ?" 

" Certainly," he said ; " of course, I don't forget the 
Decalogue." 

" Well, now, I have to tell you that these Ten Com- 
mandments have been changed." 

" What, signor ? the Commandments of God 
changed !" 

"Yes; I am very sorry to say it, the Command- 
ments of God have been changed." 

" But is not the law of God unchangeable ?" 

"The law of God is unchangeable, and those Ten 
Commandments were written by Him with His own 
finger upon tables of stone, that men might know for- 
ever that these laws could not be changed ; and that, 
however they might forget them upon earth, the hand 

'*Q. Repeat the Commandments of God? 

*' J.. The Commandments of God are ten. 1. I am the Lord 
thy God ; thou shalt have no other god before Me. 2. Thou shalt 
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 3. Remember 
that thou keep holy the feasts. 4. Honor thy father and thy moth- 
er. 5. Thou shalt not kill. 6. Thou shalt not commit fornication. 
7. Thou shalt not steal. 8. Do not bear false witness. 9. Thou 
shalt not covet the wife of another. 10. Thou shalt not covet the 
goods of another." — Compendio della Dottrina Christiana ad Uso 
delta Citta e Diocesi di Como, di cui per or dine di Mons. Vescovo 
Carlo Romano deohono servirsi in avvenire i Catechisti e Maestri 
nelle Chiese della Dottrina Christiana. Lugano^ 1855. 



THE APENNINES. 215 

of God would maintain them to eternity in heaven. 
But still the priests of Rome have changed them." 

" But how ? What change ?" 

"You have been taught by them that the second 
commandment is, ' Thou shalt not take the name of the 
Lord thy God in vain." Now none of what you have 
learned is the exact words of any commandment. 
They give you the substance of several of them, and 
what they call the second is the third, and they have 
cut one commandment clean out and thrown it away." 

" Oh, signor, you don't say that. They would never 
do that, because they must know that they would be 
found out." 

" They do know that they are found out. Their own 
Bible contains a commandment which in the Catechism 
is, as I tell you, thrown away. And do you know what 
that second commandment is ?" 

" No ; I never heard any second commandment but 
the one I have mentioned." 

" Then it is to the effect that people shall not make 
graven images, or bow down before them and worship 
them." 

"Oh," he said, "no wonder they have put that 
away." 

Ridge after ridge was passed ; the wind grew fiercer, 
and the view swept over a larger succession of mount- 
ains, while the plain stretched out farther and farther, 
and gradually grew blue, as we are wont to see distant 



216 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

hills ; but still upon its bosom the cities gleamed in the 
sun. When we had reached a very high elevation, 
when the road wound, the mysteriously distant plain 
would wind too ; cities, perhaps a day's journey apart, 
following each other as in a magic lantern. It was a 
strange and touching effect, having in it something of 
awe and mystery. How real earth is, yet how little ! 
How widely separated its objects when viewed from 
the common level! how near together when viewed 
from on high ! And away yonder, over the last hills, 
beyond and beyond the utmost edge of the hazy plain, 
and yet on this side of the horizon, shows a line of 
steadier, clearer blue. Certainly it is not mountain, and 
it looks more like water than land. Is it the Adriatic ? 
Yes, the Adriatic. Far, far away, not gleaming clearly, 
like the Dead Sea from Olivet, or spreading out grand- 
ly, like the Mediterranean from Nazareth, but doubtful- 
ly visible, like a mirage, yet steady as the sea. As the 
evening wore on we passed the frontier, leaving behind 
the old realms of the Pope, and entering Tuscany. No 
stoppage, no search, no call for passports. A shut-up 
Custom-house is a silent monument of divisions at an 
end. From Piedmont into Lombardy one, into Parma 
two, into Modena three, into the Romagna four, into 
Tuscany five. Yes, five old frontiers passed without 
even seeing a soldier or undergoing a stoppage ! To a 
traveler unions are something. 

Almost immediately after passing the frontier appear- 
ances began to change; the fields and hedges had a 



THE APENNINES. 217 

more finished look. With all its defects,^ the Tuscan 
government was very different from the papal one. 
Still one would not have thought that up three thou- 
sand feet or so above the level of the sea, traces of this 
difference would appear; but it is so. A change is 
traceable in the better condition of the land, the houses, 
the people. 

The evening was falling fast ; the wind was terribly 
high ; the horses said, " We are tired," and, like Gilpin, 
I responded, " So am I." We came to a point where a 
volley of air smote the horses and shook the carriage ; 
but in a moment more we were coursing down hill, and 
down and down, with a great valley widening below, 
and two torrents meeting in its depth, then hasting 
away to the Po ; for still we were to the north of the 
water-shed of these tough Apennines. 

"That is the house!" "No!" "That one!" "No, 
here." " ISTo, there ;" as one house and another show- 
ed itself, and as one or another chose to guess. At last 
it did come ; Covigliajo, the lone post-house, almost at 
the top of the Apennines ; and out we got, right thank- 
ful, and gathered up our multifarious wraps, under the 
eyes of a number of officers billeted here for the night. 

Much as one was impressed with the distant views 
from the Apennines, I several times thought that I had 
never crossed a great mountain range which offered less 
beauty to enliven the grandeur ; but it is to be said that 
I never before crossed one with a ranting toothache. 
Oh, how pleasant was that blazing wood fire in the post- 

K 



218 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

house at Covigliajo, and rooms looking clean and smell- 
ing sweet, and a civil old man, whose words were rather 
hard to understand, because they came out from tooth- 
less lips ; but this fallen mouth was to me just then a 
strong title to esteem, for it represented many a day of 
that sort of suffering I had just been going through. 

" The mountain air is so fine," I said ; " but it seems 
to me not to be particularly good for toothache." 

The old man looked a very long while. " No," he 
said, as if it was no trifle. Then deepening his tone, he 
repeated, "No; it tries it worse and worse." 

How thankful and cheery we all were by that cosy 
fire ! What a dinner the old man gave us ! And then 
how the ladies brewed poppy-heads, and tried by hot 
applications to charm away the pain that had been tor- 
menting me for the day ! And thus, at this high part 
of the world, began my first experience of fomentations. 
But in spite of the scalded fingers of the ladies, and my 
wonder at the heroism of nursing, and the poppy-heads, 
and a good bed, and fatigue, and mountain air, pain was 
too strong for sleep. 

After four miles of farther traveling the next morn- 
ing, we reach the highest point, and now take the west- 
ward slope. The descent is rapid, the views over the 
mountains again grand. 

Several times during the day the immense range of 
mountains and the variety of chains reminded me for a 
moment of the scene from the top of Serbal, in the Si- 
naitic Desert, and it was the only mountain scenery that 



THE APENNINES. 219 

ever did. Yet there is no proper comparison between 
the two. From Serbal the ridges seen are as distinct, 
and, one is ready to say, as numerous, as the roofs of the 
various streets of London seen from St. Paul's. The ex- 
tent of the view is far greater than even that from the 
Apennines, and, strange to say, though there is scarcely 
a rag of vegetation, except at two points, the variety of 
colors is vastly grander. 

We soon struck upon the first vines ; then they came 
more frequently ; then the air sensibly ^rew milder ; 
then cultivation began to cover all the hills. In an hour 
or two we had real vineyards and numerous villages. 
Violets came out ; hepatica, and primrose, and hellebore, 
with lilacs budding in the valleys, told us that we were 
coming nearer and nearer to the Vale of Flora. So it 
went on, growing greener, warmer, and more flowery, 
till the last spurs of the mountain were reached, and the 
valley came into view. The snow was nearly off the 
mountains, and the sun very bright. Long and far the 
Arno stretched and gleamed, not hiding, like the Thames 
from Richmond Hill, but winding in the sun to be seen 
of all. On we swept, past hills covered with olive and 
vine, each plant of the latter climbing upon its trusty 
mulberry, and the three together telling of the country's 
native wealth — oil, silk, and wine. On among square 
white houses, and convents upon hill-tops, surrounded 
by cypresses, heavy-headed palaces, country carts so old 
and ugly, and the people in their odd costumes, and the 
almond-trees in blossom, and the pervading olive-green. 



220 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

At last, at last the dome, then the tower of the Old Pal- 
ace, and the glistening bulk of beautiful Florence. All 
the cold of the mountain, all the fatigue of the ride was 
forgotten. We were all merry as larks, and even the 
surly face-ache owned the mild air, and confined itself 
to low and stifled grumbles. 

Just as we were scouring along in the enjoyment of 
this scene, the coachman and his friend called attention 
to a spectacle at which they joked. A man was leading 
a mule, another man walking beside it, and on it was 
seated a priest in his white surplice. " He is going," 
they said, " to administer extreme imction to some one 
who is dying." Ah! they may ridicule him and his 
offices ; but that surplice flitting among the olives rep- 
resents the most tremendous power in this world. Is 
that a son, or a husband, or a father, that is conducting 
him ? Be it one or the other, he thinks that man seat- 
ed on the mule holds in his hand the power to give the 
soul of his mother, or his wife, or his child, its title to 
enter the kingdom of God. He has probably hastened 
from his home in terror at the thought that death might 
arrive before the priest ; and so over Irish bogs or Ital- 
ian mountains, or other wild and lonely scenes, men 
with aching hearts often hurry, to invoke this mysteri- 
ous talisman. Other priesthoods are content with hold- 
ing in their hands power over men in this life. The 
Brahmin leaves the soul of the father, as far as it can be 
influenced from earth, to the charge of the son, laying 
upon him the duty of offering the sacrifices that will 



THE APENNINES. 221 

appease the manes ; and it is only the priests of Rome 
who have the dread art of first shadowing the spirit of 
man with their hand at every step of his course below, 
and then extending their power into the world to come, 
so that his welfare there depends again upon their in- 
tervention. Thus, over survivors, they hold the double 
influence of conveying their own absolution, and, yet 
more tremendous, of directly controlling that of their 
departed kindred! The art of selling for money re- 
demption for the dead is all their own. Do not laugh 
at that peasant and that priest ; the spectacle has too 
deep a meaning for that ! 

How would it read in apostolic writing that a dis- 
ciple from Bethany had hastened into Jerusalem with 
his ass to carry out Peter in haste to give the last sacra- 
ment to his mother, that she might die absolved ? The 
son would have hailed the presence of Peter as an ad- 
ditional light in the sick-room ; but, with it or without 
it, he and his mother would have parted rejoicing in 
hope of the glory of God. 



FLORENCE 

AT THE ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE 

OF CARIGNANO ; AND ALSO AT THE RECEPTION 

OF VICTOR EMMANUEL. 



We passed the beautiful gate, the Porta di Gallo, and 
here, for the first time since landing at Boulogne, our 
passports were asked for. This, then, is a token of the 
Tuscan autonomy; but they are only looked at. On 
we go by the Piazza S. Marco, on by the grand old 
Cathedral, with its rows of parti-colored marble and 
superb tower of the same, and its facade as bald as any 
gable in England. 

Are we in for 2^ fete again ? At Turin, ih^fete of the 
annexation and the king's birthday ; at Milan, the anni- 
versary of the five days; at Parma,. the first entry of 
Piedmontese cavalry ; at Bologna, the general election ; 
and here, at Florence, what can there be ? Banners ! 
banners ! banners ! it must be 2, fete too. As we turned 
into the little square by the Arno, just before the " New 
York" Hotel, the head of a Piedmontese column was 
winding round the corner amid flags, and music, and 
bouquets, and branches, and all tokens of interest. "A 
fete to-day ?" I said to the master of the hotel. " Yes ; 
the troops are coming in to-day, and to-morrow the 
prince." " What prince ?" '' Of Carignano, who is 
coming as Lieutenant of Tuscany, in the king's place ; 

K2 



226 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

and the king himself will come next month, after he has 
opened the Parliament." The next morning the city 
was all astir; every street running over with people, 
and every window streaming with flags. As to the 
tone of conversation, it was just the same as elsewhere; 
with this great advantage, that, instead of speaking a 
dialect, the people speak Italian, so that a foreigner has 
a much better chance of understanding and being un- 
derstood. Between two and three o'clock I was chat- 
ting with the people in the street directly before the 
hotel, when a movement showed that the procession 
was coming, and much nearer than I had any idea of. 
Paying for a stand on a bench, I jumped up. In a few 
minutes came a resplendent show of silken banners, red, 
white, and green, all carried by working-men, yet not 
one of cotton or stufi* was there. The never-forgotten 
flag in crape, borne by Venetians, passed amid special 
tokens of emotion. As to dress, the men were a cross 
between a London and a Paris crowd ; they had not 
the broadcloth coats or the black hats of the former, but 
they had not the blouse and cap of Paris. It was gen- 
erally some sort of coarse woolen coat and felt hat. 
They were not so clean as a body of London working- 
men, nor so intelligent-looking, but more polite, and as 
orderly as any men in this world could be. Immedi- 
ately after this array of the workmen came the royal 
carriage, with the Prince of Carignano— a fine-looking 
man, apparently about forty, in a splendid uniform. 
-Bouquets poured down upon him from every window 



FLOEENCE. 227 

in an overwhelming shower. Loud clapping greeted 
him every where ; and now and then the crowd burst 
into a cheer, at one or two points almost rising to an 
English " huzza." 

As soon as he had passed I made my way round by 
a back street to our party at the hotel. Here the view 
embraced the square, densely crowded with human 
heads, the narrow street before gleaming with banners 
to the highest story of every house, the stately proces- 
sion of marching tri-colors, each with its silken sheen in 
the joyful light of Florence. What perils of enthusiasm 
as the prince turned into the square ! How the bou- 
quets competed for a touch of the carriage, and fell on 
each side and jostled one another; now and then one, 
happier than the rest, actually reaching his head. His 
bows had less of the man and more of the prince than 
one liked. 

After he had passed, following the stream across the 
bridge, I soon became aware that they were making by 
a short cut for the " Pitti Palace," to greet him there. 
What a strange and grand old pile it is ! — Quaker- 
brown stones clumped together in huge layers, with 
lower windows caged in by iron gratings to the very 
top, as if security had never passed within that princely 
threshold. The square before the palace was still but 
half filled. Seeing one of the doors open, I gradually 
worked my way to it. Gentlemen and ladies entered, 
and soon reappeared among the parties on the roof of 
the two wings. Talking a little with the sober old offi- 



228 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

cial in charge of the door, I said, " I suppose there is no 
getting up to the roof." " Walk in, signor," he replied, 
without a single sign of the " give me a paul" look with 
which one is so familiar. So in I went, and up the 
stairs, and got lost here, and into a bedroom there, and 
into a sitting-room full of officers elsewhere, and at last 
on to the roof of one of the wings in good time. There 
was a sight ! — the square, filled till heads were thick as 
paving-stones. From the central doors, sweeping down 
in a curve to the street, was an avenue about fifty yards 
wide, lined with National Guards, not a soldier to be 
seen. The packed and throbbing masses, the windows 
of the houses piled with faces and blazing with flags, 
the wings of the palace crowded, its stern front with all 
the windows closed, and below, every spot, even to the 
grating of the windows, with a human being fastened to 
it, and the living avenue of sky-blue and red, with its 
files of steel gleaming in such a sun as was then above 
us, did form a dazzling and inimitable whole. 

The drums beat, and the Guards stand to arms ; the 
bells ring, but they are poor bells compared with the 
eye-beauties of the place; and at last the word '-^Ecco! 
JEcco ! See ! See !" runs through the crowd. It is the 
first silk banner, and the next, and the next ; and on, 
and on, the workmen come, bearing them, not into the 
avenue of Guards, but behind them, among the crowd, 
which by some magic or other does let them through. 
Up they work to the palace front, and line the inner 
edge of the military with such a glory of color and 



FLOEENCE. 229 

sheen as these eyes never saw. " See ! see ! see him !" 
— it is the carriage slowly struggling along through the 
crowd, not a step at a time, but half a step ; coming 
down that fearfully narrow street that lies between the 
Palace of the Medici and the quaint old bridge of Flor- 
ence, on which one might meditate for days, thinking 
of all the old stories of bridges with houses upon them 
that one has read as to London and other cities. 

The moment the carriage is disengaged from the 
dense crowd, it dashes forward, the arms of the Nation- 
al Guard rising to the salute, and flashing again. Ev- 
ery hand in that great crowd is clapped, every voice 
lifted up, and flags and pocket-handkerchiefs show joy 
in every form. He is gone in under the palace porch, 
to reappear after a while on the balcony and make his 
bow. 

Before this was done the patience of the people be- 
gan to be exhausted. They had to call for him again 
and again ; and a neighbor of mine, first in Italian, then 
in very bad French, and then with a good Irish accent, 
expressed his great indignation at his not coming out 
to show himself. During the delay the National Guard 
filed off*. Every thing Uke a weapon had disappeared. 
All around the palace was nothing but the great crowd 
of human beings. They raised one shout more — " The 
prince outside ! The prince to the balcony ! Let the 
prince show his countenance!" — when one of the shut- 
ters — for all the windows of the palace were closed — 
was drawn open, and out came the prince, without a 



230 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

guard behind or a guard before, safe and strong in the 
midst of a multitude. Then the enthusiasm became in- 
credible. Even the heavy flags waved like ribbons ; 
and as for the pocket handkerchiefs, they fairly lost 
their senses. I had seen the fete de la Fraternite in 
Paris, and many others there ; the great doings at Mi- 
lan the other day, and, of course, many national festivi- 
ties in London : things on a greater scale often ; but for 
grace, beauty, and feeling, for the gratification of the 
senses, and for hope that good results were coming, I 
never saw the equal of this, before that grand but sus- 
picious-looking old palace. 

As one looked down in the intervals of action, how 
impressive was that mass of heads — human heads, each 
inclosing its own invisible world of passions, cares, and 
secrets; each having its account open with eternity; 
each its sins and coming judgment ! Poor heads! toss- 
ing and waving, and burning with zeal for a great 
movement — may God send grace upon them! They 
seem possessed only with patriotic thoughts — thoughts 
so far right, even laudable. But He who is making 
that sun pour rays on every single head, can easily send 
beams of light to shine within, and open up new glories 
to the view and efforts of their souls. Oh for an effu- 
sion of God's own Spirit upon this multitude ! Surely 
my prayer was not the only one to that effect which 
went up there. 

In one of the first visits paid after this exciting scene, 



FLORENCE. 231 

I met a poor man who had been ill and suffering. He 
was one of the first Florentines who, through the 
reading of the Bible, had become convinced that the 
Church of Rome did not represent the religion there 
taught, and who consequently had drawn upon them- 
selves first the suspicion, and then the severity of the 
government. Count Guicciardini had been one who 
shared with this poor man in the same studies at the 
fountain of Christianity, in the same resulting convic- 
tions, and finally in dangers and sufferings. One day, 
at a little meeting in a private house, the police came 
upon them ; seven men were seized, thrown into prison, 
and sentenced to six months' confinement in the Ma- 
remma. This last word intimates a punishment Avhich 
it is impossible to describe, being exposure to death 
without a sentence of execution. The Maremma means 
a malarious district, where every one, and especially 
those not inured to it, are exposed to fever; and a 
prison placed here is considered a convenient plan for 
getting rid of people whom it would not be becoming 
to hang. However, they were not left in the Marem- 
ma, but were finally exiled. These persecutions had 
been continued from time to time ; the one case which 
attracted most attention in England, not being that of 
the count, but the humble Madiai. By degrees, how- 
ever, Bibles found their way in the pocket of one and 
another, quietly and stealthily, as if crimes and dangers 
lurked under the cover of the Book ; and in the same 
way that the Reformation took its rise in England, by 



232 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

the reading of the Word of God in private first among 
individuals, then little knots of people, so it has been 
taking its rise in Florence, and some other parts of 
Tuscany. The converts resulting from it have been 
justly described as " children of the incorruptible seed." 
This is not the result of organization, but just the quiet 
influence of a few private Christians, united to study 
that Book, which to the careless man is mysterious and 
dull. 

In one of my visits, at the top of a great number of 
stairs, I found a fine old woman, with a fair, happy. 
Christian countenance. In a Methodist circle in York- 
shire she would have been called a " mother in Israel." 
She had clear views of scriptural truth, and had an open 
eye to public movements. As Lord IsTormanby's state- 
ments in the House of Lords had made some noise in 
England, it occurred to me to learn what this old lady 
would say about them. She affirmed that all his state- 
ments about disorders and acts of violence were positive- 
ly false. As to Giuseppe Dolfi, the baker, whom he set 
up to the Lords for abhorrence, she said he was the one 
most worthy man of the lower classes — a man who had 
spent a fortune for the public good. Presently in came 
a short country lad : " There is another brother," she 
said with a smile, and then pointing to me, " That is a 
Christian brother from England." I held out my hand 
cordially, but my new brother planted a kiss of peace 
upon my cheek. At present there are three Italian 
Protestant congregations worshiping in Florence. One 



FLORENCE. 233 

is connected with the Vaudois Church, where the Gos- 
pel is simply but efficiently preached to an assembly of 
intelligent and respectable-looking people; the other 
two both seem more numerous. In one of them I heard 
a converted priest, a simple, but good man, who affec- 
tionately urged Christian truths upon the attention of 
the j)eople, and that with considerable moral power. 
The body to which he is attached assemble on the 
banks of the Arno, in a private room, for which they 
are far too numerous, and ought at once to have a large 
and regular place of worship. The other congregation 
meet in the Piazza Barbano ; and their singing, unlike 
that in most Protestant congregations on the Conti- 
nent, would give one an impression of something more 
than a pensive solemnity. They did sing, throwing 
heart and soul into it, and making the place ring. 
These different congregations are evidently going for- 
ward, and contain many persons of zeal, and of worthy 
Christian life. It is much to be regretted that they at- 
tach considerable importance to difference of views ex- 
isting among themselves as to forms of Church govern- 
ment. Surely there can be no need for Italian Chris- 
tians to settle all questions of that kind at once ; and if 
diversities of view exist, what harm can be in that, 
provided only that they are not magnified into cause 
of alienation ? Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congrega- 
tionalists, Plymouth Brethren, Methodists, be they what 
they may, all preach the same Gospel, differing only in 
subordinate points ; all enforce the same principles of 



234 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

worship, differing only in forms. And surely the time 
has come when Christians may give up all claims to in- 
fallibility, and believe that divergence from their o^\ti 
views does not necessarily constitute even a divergence 
from the truth, much less an opposition to it. 

It was expected at the late revolution that perfect 
religious liberty would be accorded, and much was 
gained; but the new government has shown itself 
nervous upon this subject. The priests have threaten- 
ed, and the statesmen have either been afraid or pro- 
fessed to be so. When a gentleman arrived with a few 
boxes containing Bibles, the priest who still held office 
at the Custom-house as guardian of the purity of the 
country cried out in horror at the sight, "What is 
going to happen to Tuscany ?" And Ricasoli, if he did 
not share the spiritual alarm of the worthy father, felt 
another kind of fear, and prohibited the Bibles, as if 
they really had been dangerous. Much allowance 
should be made for timidity in such circumstances, 
but, at the same time, we know that it is one of those 
points which the strong word of a strong man would 
have settled at once and forever. Had Ricasoli but 
said to that priest, as the public professions of himself 
and his colleagues had pledged him to do, " The con- 
science of man is free in Tuscany, and the Bible is a free 
book !" that would have become a law against which 
the priests could not stand up. There is a power in 
the assertion of sacred principles which strengthens 
even a weak government. 



FLOEENCE. 235 

Not only did the interim Tuscan government permit 
the exclusion of the Bible, but it permitted several acts 
of coquetting with the liberty of the congregations in 
the town ; and when Gavazzi arrived, expecting that, 
in a free country, he could stand up and preach, he was 
held under restraint ; not thrown into prison or driven 
away, as he would have been at Naples or Rome, 
but as effectually debarred from lifting up his voice 
in public.^' 

Again, in different parts of the country, local officials 
were allowed to close meetings with violence and per- 
secution ; and, most of all, the authorities of the great 
city of Leghorn, pouncing, not upon an unknown evan- 
gelist, but upon services formally organized by the 
Vaudois Church, which is acknowledged by the govern- 
ment of the country, put a stop to them by force, and 
followed up the blow by formal decisions, which read 
as a severe, not to say incredible satire upon the profes- 
sions of respect for liberty of religion, and liberty in 
general, made by the Tuscan government. 

Such acts, being permitted at first, involve great dan- 
ger for the time to come. It is, however, to be said on 
behalf of this government that it has secured to the 
struggling Protestants one or two necessaries of exist- 
ence. One who died at Pontedera, a town between 
Florence and Leghorn, and could not there obtain 

* While this is passing through the press, I am thankful to learn 
that his mighty voice is lifted up at last. May God lead and pros- 
per him ! 



236 ITALY IN TEAl^SITIOK. 

burial, was allowed by the government to be brought 
to Florence, and Inhere decently interred by his Chris- 
tian brethren. Thus far tolerance to the dead. In an- 
other case, permission was given to parties married as 
Protestants to have their union formally entered upon 
the public register ; and thus began in Tuscany toler- 
ance to families. Again, permission has been obtained 
to establish a Protestant school, the first, it is supposed, 
which ever existed in Central Italy, in which the Bible 
forms part of the course of instruction. Great difficul- 
ties were thrown in the way. The woman who let the 
rooms for the school has received notice to remove 
from her landlady, the widow of one of the most cele- 
brated Tuscan noblemen on the Liberal side. The 
magistrate of the district had all the parents of the 
children summoned before him ; but when he learned 
from them that they perfectly knew what sort of a 
school it was, and were prepared to take all the respons- 
ibility of sending their children there, he gave it his 
unqualified sanction. It is therefore proceeding ; and, 
though not numerously attended, is a beginning such 
as they who are specially connected with it may well 
rejoice in. 

It seems very strange that at this day, and so near 
home, we should be struggling for little scraps of re- 
ligious liberty in points on which it is enjoyed by Chris- 
tians among the Kaffirs and Hindoos, and even the 
Fijians ; but the hard hand of Rome has consolidated 
European intolerance. 



FLORENCE. 237 

One day, at the table d'hote in Florence, I was seated 
beside a party of bearded Italians. Most Italians are 
grave ; these seemed deeply so. I crept into talk with 
my next neighbor, a silent and depressed man. To 
every allusion to the state of things in Italy he replied 
with a sigh. Perhaps he was a friend of fallen or of 
falling interests ? It came out that he was a Roman 
(the whole party were so), and his heart was sore. He 
could be got to say little of the state of things. Was 
not the Pope a worthy old man ? He shut his mouth 
desperately hard; then he just let slide out of it, "Not 
so bad as some — a child ; an old child ; but still a 
child ; not fit for any public post ; full of vainglory." 
After a while he warmed a little, and said, " What is 
to become of us in Rome we don't know. Lately it 
has been seriously said that even France had consented 
that we should be ceded to Naples." How his black 
Roman eyes hooked into one as he uttered this ! We 
then went fully into the question of the relation of the 
Pope and Popery to the religion of Christ. He knew 
little, but wanted to know. What a look he shot out 
of those black eyes when told that even the Decalogue 
had been changed! He still held by the distinction 
between temporal and spiritual power, but was not pre- 
pared with any reason for believing that the spiritual 
power could be acknowledged, as the Pope claimed it, 
without laying the foundation of all kinds of temporal 
despotism. " Certain it is," he says, " that the Popes 
have been Italy's plague, and its plague they must be 



238 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

as long as they have an existence in it. Whatever 
becomes of the Pope, he shall not stay in Italy ; that is 
certain. He may go to Jerusalem or to Antioch, where 
the Church took its rise. Those zealous Catholics Avho 
think it necessary that he should be a king may go 
with him; they may conquer a kingdom for him, and 
we shall all join to guarantee that kingdom so con- 
quered." 

From this conversation I went directly to a little 
evangelical meeting on the banks of the Arno. The 
room would hold more than a hundred, and it was full. 
They stood to pray, and they sat to sing, and did it 
heavily. What a difference between their singing and 
that of a knot of peasants yesterday in a cafe. They 
sang words one could not catch, except "Italy," "free," 
" one," " strong," " one from Mont Cenis to — ," I could 
not tell. It was a song of deliverance, union, battle, 
and hope. They felt it ; and the music, and the time, 
and the movement, all was in accordance with their 
feeling. One could have marched to battle while listen- 
ing to them. Now is not the Avork of the Church a de- 
liverance, a union, a battle? and are we to have no 
spirit-stirring song ? But if the singing was dull, the 
place was thronged, and the preaching good. The pas- 
sage of Scripture commented upon was the second 
chapter of Acts. A clear statement was given of the 
character of Christianity as therein displayed, and ev- 
ery now and then the contrast between it and what ex- 
isted under the eyes of the people was given in Ian- 



FLOBENCE. 239 

guage free from bitterness, but keen and telling. For 
instance, the apostolic reply to those who asked, " What 
must we do?" as contrasting with the conduct of a 
man who would tell you to place yourself under his 
spiritual direction, and he would take the responsibility 
of your soul, was put so shrewdly as to provoke broad 
smiles. 

In all the preaching I heard among the Italians one 
thing was very plain : they united the two great points, 
salvation by grace and the duty of holy living. There 
was no obscurity on either hand. The pure mercy of 
God as the only fountain, the obedient life as the only 
evidence, and the Lord Jesus as the meritorious medi- 
um of the one, the perfect example of the other, were 
ever kept in view ; and where people will fully main- 
tain these essentials, one need care comparatively little 
about minor though not unimportant opinions. In con- 
versation with one of the evangelists, as they are called, 
I found that our views on Church matters converged 
and diverged oddly enough. Somehow we came upon 
the seventh chapter of Romans. He at once declared 
against this being the type of a normal Christian. Mis- 
understanding some objection I took to one of his 
phrases as being directed against his general opinion, 
he went off with great zeal to demonstrate that the 
grace of God did make us free, did enable us to over- 
come evil, to walk in newness of life, and to do the will 
of our heavenly Father with a sense of His favor and 
approval. When he found that I was quite as far as he 



240 ITALY IN TRAKSITIOX. 

from believing tliat the seventh chapter of Romans de- 
scribes the state of grace into which the Christian is 
called, and took him into the eighth as the happy se- 
quel, and amplified his own proofs of his position, he 
wondered and was pleased. 

When we next returned to Florence the whole town 
was on tiptoe, expecting an event such as had never oc- 
curred before in the long history of the city. Old as it 
is, and full of illustrious recollections, with names bril- 
liant in every department of history, still it had never 
welcomed its own ItaUan king. With princes it had 
long been familiar, and has no record of the time when 
it was not head of the Tuscan state ; but a king, an Ital- 
ian king, was coming now. The pride of being a capital 
which had so long lived in Florence, and which the 
most thoughtful men supposed to be so deeply rooted 
among the people that no consideration would induce 
them to agree to incorporation in a kingdom of which 
Florence was not the queen, had now given way under 
that wonderful impulse to national union which seems 
to have gone through the very nature of the Italians. 
" God has made our country to be one, and marked His 
purpose by seas and moimtains : human schemers have 
too long successfully labored to defeat the design of 
Providence ; but the day of deliverance is come, and 
Italy shall be One." This is the ruling thought of ev- 
ery generous and ardent man in the country. 

When the day arrived, it really seemed as if all Tus- 



FLOKEIS^CE. 241 

cany had emptied itself into the streets of the gay little 
town. Narrow, queer, winding old streets they are. 
You hardly know why, in going through Florence, you 
feel so pleased. Such a town in the moist and smoky 
air of England would be very dull, and soon very, very 
ugly. The quays along the Arno are beautiful. Every 
spot of the town is interesting; many are picturesque, 
and a few may be called pretty. The view from the 
Boboli Gardens, where you command the whole city 
and the surrounding valley, is one the grandeur and the 
beauty of which no human words will ever convey to 
any mind. What with flowers, and shrubs, and trees, 
and statues, and palaces, and towers, and domes — what 
with the gleaming river, and the vineyards, and olive- 
yards, and endless blossoms, and all beautiful things — 
what with the lower hills and swelling mountains, and 
the great snowy Apennines, it is something that no 
one will ever describe or paint. But, after all, it is the 
light and air which makes the pleasure of the place. 
Steep all this in a humid atmosphere, brown it with 
smoke, cover it with clouds, and you will dim every ob- 
ject, lower the spirits, and reduce the vivacity of the eye. 
The air has something in it so soft as to make you 
well pleased with every thing. In winter, as all over 
Italy, there is a breath of snow from the mountains, and 
far into spring more or less of this cooling influence is 
to be felt ; but when the sun is strong enough to pro- 
duce a genial warmth, the united efiect of the two is 
something very peculiar. Although the favorite drive 

L 



242. ITALY IN TEANSITIOIS-. 

of Florence, the Cascine, for extent, imdulation of the 
ground, size of the timber, or any other natural advant- 
age, is not to be named in comparison with Kensington 
Gardens, a Avitchery is exerted upon your eye and your 
spirits which makes you think that it is more beautiful 
than any thing in London. 

Turn wherever one would in this city on the day 
of the king's arrival, it was crowds, crowds, crowds. 
Townspeople, country people, men and women in the 
quaint costumes of their villages, or in the convention- 
al dress of Europe, but all polite, all orderly, as if they 
were in a drawing-room. The preparations Avere on a 
scale of elegance and grandeur united. At a few yards' 
distance the triumphal arches would look like buildings 
that had stood for years ; all of them good in design, 
some of them rich and beautiful. Eyes tliat would pass 
the marble arch at Hyde Park Corner with little atten- 
tion, w^ould have been fixed by some of them. It was 
almost impossible to persuade one's self that all this 
was done by a few planks, hurriedly put together, and 
made to look like stone. One column, bearing a statue 
of the king, in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, erected 
by a private gentleman, a Jew, was said to have cost 
£4000. The decorations at the railway station, where 
the king was to arrive, were enchanting. The avenue 
of tri-color flags flying on high, the intervening festoons 
of bay-leaves scenting the air far around ; the flowers, 
especially the camellia, red and white, mingling with the 
bay, and giving at once the national tri-color, a compli- 



FLORENCE. 243 

ment to the king as a victor, and to Cavour as the sym- 
bol of his own name, made a combination for the senses 
and the imagination not to be forgotten. In one of the 
streets — that leading direct from the Cathedral to the 
Old Palace — at every few yards was raised an artificial 
tree ; not a little bush, but a stately tree, covered thick 
with camellias ; the most extraordinary piece of street 
decoration I ever saw. 

When the hour for the king's arrival drew nigh, the 
square in front of the New York Hotel was dense with 
heads. It was known that upon his arrival at the rail- 
way station cannon would be fired. Just about the an- 
ticipated time a thud went through the crowd. Every 
hand clapped, every voice was lifted up, and, to any one 
who knows the gravity of those Itahans, it was strange 
to see great men, dark and tall, springing up in the air 
as you might expect French urchins to do. 

The feeling on the day when her majesty first visited 
the city of London was warm and lively, combining 
veneration for an ancient monarchy with interest in a 
youthful queen ; but here the emotion was altogether 
difierent. The man who was coming, w^hom they had 
hot seen, and could not see for some considerable time, 
was their " own king," their " Italian king." They nev- 
er had had one ; princes in plenty, but within their mem- 
ory these had only been instruments of the enemies of 
their country ; but now was coming one who was their 
own king, the representative of a line as ancient as any, 
but chosen by their hearts and hands because he and 



244 ITALY IN TEANSinON. 

his father had fought for the independence of Italy, and 
he was prepared to fight again for the independence of 
It^ly. As to attempting to describe the sights, the 
sounds, the storms of music and of shouts, the waving 
of banners, the flinging of flowers and bouquets, it is 
totally out of the question. On came the king, on his 
charger, his brilhant staff around him, on in the midst 
of a hurricane of cheers, and a shower of bays and bou- 
quets. 

And when Cavour made his appearance, the storm 
that for a moment had lulled after the king's passing 
woke up again, and ten thousand voices and ten thou- 
sand hands thundered out their joy at the sight of the 
man. 

Illuminations and fire-works are generally much the 
same all the world over ; but there was an amount of 
genius displayed in the fighting of the houses, of the 
palace towers, the dome of the Cathedral, and especial- 
ly in the fire- works along the Arno, when on both sides 
of the river, with the bridge just before our hotel for 
the centre-piece, brilliant scenes were blazed off, that 
forbade comparison with any thing one had witnessed 
in this line. As to extent, of course it would all have 
been included in one quarter of London during the late 
rejoicings for peace ; but as to the combination of ef- 
fects, no one point could have been selected on that oc- 
casion to approach it. 

Having now seen so many pubhc demonstrations in 
Italy, it is but due to the people to state that in every 



FLORENCE. 245 

instance they showed the deepest regard for order. In 
point of good manners they exceeded any crowds I had 
ever met with. I did not witness one case of drunken- 
ness, of misconduct, or of angry words, except one 
sharp passage between an old soldier and a recruit in 
Milan. The excitements always appeared to be those 
of pure enjoyment. No hatred or animosity was ever 
vented, but in each place, when the craj)e-covered ban- 
ner of Venetia appeared, there were signs of intense 
feeling, and especially at Florence on the day of the 
king's arrival, when it was not carried alone, but accom- 
panied by two others, one borne by Romans, another 
by Neapolitans. Considering what passionate material 
Italian mobs are made up of, it was almost incredible 
that regard for order and moderation should have so 
deeply penetrated the masses ; and one could not helj) 
looking upon it as a silent token that Providence was 
preparing to lift up this long-oppressed nation, and to 
open before it a great career. 

The Civilta Cattolica^ in describing the entrance of 
the king, says that a concourse of curious people was 
not wanting; but the truth is, that out of London 
I have never seen such a multitude. The greatest 
throngs in Paris during the revolutionary time of 1848 
were not equal to it. The same authority states that 
when the king looked about the city, and enjoyed the 
beauties of the Pitti Palace, he said, " A beautiful city ! 
What a pity one can only see it once !" How far this 
may be true I am not prepared to say, nor to speculate 



246 ITALY i:n^ transition. 

upon the probabilities of the Italian kingdom. Every 
day that passes, the principles and tendency of union 
take a greater hold. A mistake was made at first in 
retaining what they call the Tuscan autonomy, or sep- 
arate government ; but this can not last long, if the dif- 
ferent parts of the new kingdom hold together. 

To us, one advantage of the abolition of these little 
states will be, that we shall no longer maintain an em- 
bassador at a petty and corrupt court, surrounded by 
swarms of gay persons, whose reputations in the differ- 
ent capitals of Europe have been worn down. Such 
schools of manners abroad are unfriendly to all English 
ideas, national and social; nothing is more unlike a true 
Englishman or Englishwoman than the sort of creature 
that has long hung about one of those courts, and be- 
come enamored of the society abounding there. Their 
very language is denationahzed. 

For all our purposes, one embassy at Turin is quite 
enough, and, for the present, England is ably represent- 
ed by Sir James Hudson, who enjoys the double advant- 
age of being considered by the Italians a stanch friend 
of their cause and a model of the social qualities, while 
in the eyes of his own countrymen he stands as a thor- 
ough Englishman. If it be true, as generally stated, 
that the appearance of the Sardinian army in the Crimea 
was due to him, then his action upon the history of 
Italy has had momentous results; for that movement 
both fixed the eyes of every state in Italy upon that 
army, and gave the diplomatists of Sardinia a right to 



floee:n'Ce. 247 

lift up their voice in the great council of Europe. Sir 
James is blessed with two things of great advantage to 
a diplomatist, a good presence and winning manners. 
On a noble pair of English shoulders he carries as fine 
a head as king or gentleman need wish for. 

As to the religious prospects of Central Italy, all we 
need desire is to see Christians, individuals, or bodies 
unite their prayers and exertions to spread that light 
which is silently but steadily advancing, and, at the 
same time, to see statesmen carrying out the principles 
of the Constitution, and giving practical religious liber- 
ty. It is one thing to make proclamation of a theory, 
and another to recognize what it implies in the conflicts 
of every day. 

It indicates the catholicity of Christian denominations 
in England that we find them supporting the Italian 
Protestant churches without any plans for their denom- 
inational advancement. Members of the Church of En- 
gland, through what is called the Foreign Aid Society, 
freely render assistance to churches that have no eccle- 
siastical afiinity with their own. Members of the Dis- 
senting bodies, through their Continental Society, in the 
same way render assistance without any denomination- 
al agency. The Free Church of Scotland has long had 
Dr. Stewart at Leghorn, and first Mr. Hanna, and now 
Mr. M'Dougal, at Florence, who only preach and act 
directly in English, but who have, in every possible 
way, and with the greatest utility, encouraged • and 
helped the Italian Christians, especially the Vaudois. 



248 ITAI.Y I2h TBANSmON. 

Most of those who have been the means of instruct- 
ing the converts of Central Italy were Plymouth Breth- 
ren, whose opmions upon questions of Church orcjer are 
such that they can not help impressing them strongly 
on aU who come imder their influence ; and perhaps 
there is in the ItaUan mind something favorable to 
teaching which leads them to an abhorrence of every 
sort of Church government, confounding all forms of 
ministry with the dreaded Romish priesthood. But as 
their ^iews mature, and their knowledge of the Chris- 
tian world and of the Christian Scriptures increases, ex- 
tremes will correct themselves ; and, in the mean time, 
it is enough for other Christians to know that those 
Italians who are imbued most stronsrly with fears of 
every constituted church are earnest lovers of their 
Bible, zealous preachers of Christ, and steady, com-a- 
geous witnesses for all the essentials of Divine truth. A 
clergyman of the English Chm'ch, weU known in Flor- 
ence, justly said, " However much one may wish that 
their \iews with regard to Church government were 
not so extreme, and howe^^er certain one may be that 
no great Christian movement- will take place without a 
change in' that point, still they have done and are doing 
much good, and deserve all the encouragement that any 
of us can give them." 

The last thing that English Protestants ought to 
think of doing would be to impose their own ideas 
upon Reformed Italians. Let us only encourage, in- 
vite, and help them forward, and in minor matters the 



TLORENCE. 249 

good hand of Providence will guide them rightly. We 
do not know what new development the reform move- 
ment in Italy may lead to. A gentleman, apparently 
conversant with public questions, and accustomed to 
revolve them, speaking of the effect of the excommuni- 
cation after it had been issued, said, " This, you will see, 
will lead to the union of all Christendom. The Church 
in Italy will be reformed ; the Protestant churches will 
draw nearer to us; and though great difficulties will 
come in the way, and much time will pass, still the issue 
will be the union of all Christendom." I asked him if 
by union he meant uniformity in all points of observ- 
ance and belief; but he replied, No, he did not see why 
minor differences might not very well exist without in 
the least degree hindering general union. How far the 
minds of thinkers and public men are turned to the 
probability of a national reform I can not profess to 
say. Some parties, who ought to know the priests well, 
are confident that among them large numbers are eager 
for it. As to politicians, my own impression was that, 
in general, they had not yet dared to face the question ; 
that their policy with the Church was the very natural 
one of meeting each difficulty as it arose, and trying to 
stave off all others ; moving steadily toward the attain- 
ment of political liberties, and avoiding as far as possi- 
ble raising Church questions. 

Persons reading many of the expressions contained in 
the conversations reported here will be ready to think 
that these people would at once become Protestants 

L2 



250 ITALY IX TEANSmON. 

iinder a free government ; and, in fact, one of the first 
things I heard in England, on landing, was a statement 
from a gentleman who had just returned from Florence, 
to a lady in the railway carriage, that all Northern 
Italy was ripe for Protestantism. This is a rash say- 
ing. Northern Italy is nothing of the kind. The people 
are weary of the priests, ahenated from the Church, re- 
solved to be free, and panting after the union and glory 
of their coimtry. Many of them are convinced that in 
religion they have been imposed upon, and that the 
Church edifice they see around them is not the solid 
building on the rock reaixd by Christ and His apostles, 
but " a frail and whited clump of stones." It can hard- 
ly be doubted that large numbers — perhaps the major- 
ity of the people, and probably a considerable portion 
of the priesthood — would be not only ready, but glad 
to join any national reform which would break off their 
yoke, and render religion more "rational," as they call 
it; for in the benefits of this they might partake with- 
out exposing themselves individually to persecution. 
If any great statesman or leading ecclesiastic were bold 
enough to initiate such a movement, it is hard to say to 
what extent it might be carried. Did Cavour and the 
king avow their independence of Rome, and solemnly 
reject the pretensions of the Pope to universal domin- 
ion, no doubt they would divide the kingdom into two 
parties ; but there can be little question that the army 
and the intelligent portion of the country would be 
with them ; and future generations of Italians would 



FLORENCE. 251 

look upon the movement as do the present generations 
in countries where it has occurred, namely, as the turn- 
ing-point of national life and vigor. 

Public events appear to tend to a position that will 
force the state to choose between spiritual independ- 
ence and temporal degradation, and it is by this dilem- 
ma that Providence has again and again wrought out 
the rescue of nations. In Italy it may or it may not be 
so ; my business is not to foretell. 

For the moment the absorption of men's minds in 
political questions is unfriendly to the quiet process of 
awakening and conversion, and spiritually-minded men, 
looking up to the storm roaring over their heads, are 
ready to distrust it, as if it could produce no other than 
earthly and disturbing results, only leaving men's minds 
more and more distracted from the eternal things where- 
with they ought to be engaged. But they forget that 
in every national deliverance God has been at the same 
time working by two distinct currents — the silent oper- 
ations of the Spirit upon the minds of individuals, and 
political movements, by which unconscious crowds have 
been led to impulses, and unwilling politicians to meas- 
ures, that have issued in making the way of the Gospel 
free. Let not, then, the spiritually-minded Italians 
complain of the public turmoil that is going on around 
them. 

I heard the dew-drops complaining of the clouds, 
and saying, "When you keep away, the stars shine 
sweetly upon the earth, the dew is formed, and the re- 



252 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

freshment of creation goes on in quietness worthy of 
Its Author ; but when you come, the heavens are dark- 
ened, every thing on earth cast under a shade, the form- 
ation of dew hindered, and storms often arise." Ay, 
but both the one and the other are sent on the same 
mission by the same hand ! 



uptu xil 



THE SUNRISE SHORE. 



If you lay your left hand open upon your knee, 
the space between the thumb and forefinger represents 
the Gulf of Genoa ; the coast stretching away toward 
Nice — the thumb — is called Riviera di Ponente, the 
" Sunset Shore," and the coast stretching toward Tus- 
cany — the finger — the Riviera di Levante, the " Sunrisef 
Shore." 

April was smiling, and breathing, and singing its best 
along the Vale of Arno. The tumble-down houses 
scattered there, as if man's libel on the beauties of the 
Creator, were so spread around with garden-crops and 
hidden by blossoms that they lost half their ugliness. 
The old city of Pisa had the huge front of its houses 
and public buildings covered with preparations for a 
grand illumination to receive the king. The Leaning 
Tower hung just as it had done when I saw it before, 
or as it has been seen for any time these many centu- 
ries, and the post-horses swept merrily past it on the 
road to the Sunrise Shore. 

Between the mountains and the sea lies a slip of low 
land, here perfectly flat, and as full of vegetable Avealth 
and beauty as land can ever be. The air is soft and 



256 ITALY IK TEANSmOlS^. 

warm ; not an air which, like that of the desert, inspires 
yon with a courage to do, but that makes it a pleasure 
to be — that gives one, in the bare fact of existing, a 
soft and contented sensation. The farther one goes, 
the richer and fairer the field becomes ; or, perhaps, the 
eye wakes up more and more to a sense of all with 
which one is surrounded. Vineyards and olive-yards, 
but such oUve-yards as even in Palestine are not to be 
seen — ^the trees not so large and fine as there, but for- 
ests of olive, extending far and far, and the flax just be- 
ginning to flower, and the almond in blossom, and the 
cherries and the peaches covered with masses of their 
own fair bloom, and the orange and lemon, the fruit of 
the latter glistening in its bower of green, and aloes 
in the hedges, and occasionally a palm — altogether the 
scene was one succession of delights for the senses. 
Wealth, wealth, wealth ! Oh what wealth ! And the 
glorious mountains about Lucca looking down, and 
the clear sky so bright and blue ! But, after all that 
we say of an Italian sky, it is not equal to that of 
Egypt, nor to that of many parts of America. The 
most ravishing dome of blue sky my eyes ever looked 
upon was from Mount Auburn, near Boston ; and the 
most exquisite sunrise was over the waters of Lake 
Erie, between Buflalo and Niagara. 

Amid the endless riches and delicate beauties of the 
region over which we were coursing, there was one 
drawback. Where were the happy human homes? 
where the bright cottages, where the smiling villages. 



THE SUNRISE SHOEE. 257 

the tidy farm-yards, the well-kept cattle, and the clean 
children? Men and women there were, finely formed 
as need be, and children in plenty too ; but the dwel- 
lings! They did not deserve to be called homes. 
Sometimes miserable straw cabins, sometimes square 
houses with little poking windows, as if every one was 
afraid both of robbers and the sun; and around the 
houses such dirt and disorder, things so out of repair 
and shapeless, cattle few and ill-tended, women bare- 
footed, and altogether no sign of wealth, and very little 
of comfort, as the result of all the generations of civ- 
ilized labor spent on this most ancient shore of Europe. 
To judgQ by the invaluable " Murray," one would sup- 
pose that every town one was coming to was a place 
of some importance, for each had its own curious point 
of history, or its building or pictures well worth seeing, 
which the writer did no more than note in moderate 
and just language; but the imagination beforehand 
would invest the place with a certain beauty and im- 
portance; and when you saw that it was a miserable 
little town, you felt as if somebody had deceived you. 
How often this occurs ; and one blames an author for 
exaggerated description, when perhaps, if you afterward 
take the pains of carefully reading over the book, you 
will find that not a word is said but what came from a 
mind thoroughly determined to represent exactly what 
it felt ; but somehow yoitr imagination has run ahead 
of the language, and invested objects with an atmos- 
phere of your own ! This we are in the habit of doing 



258 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

with most things that we have not seen. Take, for in- 
stance, the little town of Massa, a place which contains 
the palace of a duke and that of a bishop, which is 
overshadowed by perhaps the most beautiful bare 
mountains in Europe. The beauty of bare mountains 
is a something that is very hard to be accounted for, 
and the internal coloring of the stone is seen here bet- 
ter than in any place I know out of Arabia. Vegeta- 
tion yields a variety of tints that exercises a powerful 
charm upon the eye. With these warm gray, blue, cop- 
per-colored, and sometimes purple mountains of marble 
on one hand, with glimpses of the Mediterranean to be 
caught from the surrounding hills, with nature sporting 
all her greens immediately around it — the gray green 
of the olive, the yellow green of the young fig-leaf, the 
dark green of the pine, and the delicate emerald of the 
flax, with every imaginable blossom, with lemons hang- 
ing golden over the walls, and the scents of flowers fill- 
ing the air, one would think that Massa must be the 
most delightful place in the world. Yet, as, in some of 
the most beautiful valleys of England — say Airedale, 
for instance — by manufacturing skill we manage to 
make as ugly villages as ever defaced nature, so, by 
dint of bad government, and inaction, and want of lib- 
erty, this Massa is about as stupid a little town as post- 
horses were ever changed at. One would scarcely en- 
gage to live in it for the palace of both the duke and 
the bishop put together, and all the lemons, and or- 
anges, and figs, and silk that the neighborhood could 
yield. 



THE SUNEISE SHOKE. 259 

For those that strike off into the mountain to Carrara 
a good post-road is formed, but those who go on straight 
to Sarzana have the advantage of seeing a piece of such 
road as is intended for the natives, and wonderfully bad 
it is. Yet the poorest villages — and poor they are — 
have around them such wonderful affluence of nature 
as makes one feel that under different management this 
might be the loveliest tract upon earth. When one 
thinks of the lanes and cottages about our Westmore- 
land lakes, where nature is comparatively sparing, but 
where almost every step bears witness to the effects of 
generations of industry, one can not help wondering 
what this country would be if it had been handled in 
just the same way. Now and then, upon the rising 
ground, the glimpses of the sea come in to add to the 
universal witchery, and away there to the left lies the 
site of the old Luna, the queen of these Etruscan shores, 
from which came that terrible Lord of Luna that Ma- 
caulay has sung in his " Lays of Ancient Rome." The 
mountains gradually press nearer to the sea until you 
reach Sarzana, which is a considerable town, and noted 
as being the cradle of the Bonaparte family ; one of 
whom, a notary here, having emigrated to Corsica, be- 
came the founder of that branch whence sprang the 
present imperial house of France. 

A short way beyond this the highlands fairly cut off 
the path, running down alongside the River Magra as if 
to oppose a double barrier, of water and of hill, against 
farther progress. That Magra is a wayward stream, 



260 ITALY IN TKAKSITIOJST. 

coveriDg an immense space with its bed, but at present 
only a small one with its waters. You see traces of its 
periodical rage in boulders and in wastes. It is but re- 
cently that a bridge has been opened across it, and a 
fine monument to the Sardinian government that work 
is. One felt inclined to thank them for the privilege of 
rolling over on nimble wheels, instead of going through 
all the dangers of shipping and unshipping horses, car- 
riage, and passengers, and through the extortion of a 
parcel of ferrymen, who would perhaps slip a linch-pin, 
or something of the kind, to detain you, and get more 
out of you. The frequency with which the country is 
swept by torrents, that bring down ruin at certain peri- 
ods of the year upon a considerable tract, constantly 
suggests the idea of how much might be done (particu- 
larly when one remembers that this is the case almost 
all over Italy) by a government that would undertake 
the formation of tanks and other works of irrigation. 
Under such a sun as that of Italy, those waste waters 
contained endless wealth, if properly turned to account. 
The Hindoos, by their system of tanks, have shown us 
how much may be done to bless hot countries with the 
advantages of perennial irrigation ; and if England only 
applies to India the resources of its own science and 
capital in economizing Indian waters, instead of letting 
them run to waste, they will turn into every form of 
wealth both for the subject and the governing country, 
because every tropical stream is far more than a river 
of corn, and wine, and oil. 



THE SUNEISE SHORE. 261 

Immediately to the north of the Magra the highlands 
stand up in conical hills, wooded to the top, and on one 
or two of them towns are pitched exactly as in Syria, 
and with very much the same impression. In the dis- 
tance one would think they were beautiful places ; and, 
probably, when you entered them, they would be as 
dirty and as uncomfortable as need be. 

From this point the road continues among the mount- 
ains, first up and then down, until at last the Gulf of 
Spezzia comes out before the eye, and presently you are 
at the level of the sea again, at the door of the pictur- 
esque, clean, comfortable hotel of that promising town. 

The Bay, or, as it is called, the Gulf of Spezzia, is ca- 
pable of accommodating all the fleets of Europe, and is 
henceforth to become the great naval arsenal of the new 
kingdom. The town, standing just at the head of this 
deep inlet, reminds one, in point of situation, of Belfast ; 
T^ut instead of having behind it the great valley of the 
Bann, it is closely hemmed in by mountains — a back- 
ground which figures better upon canvas, but not so 
well in ledgers. Approaching the place at night, one 
would fear that its prospects of commerce must be very 
limited ; but in the morning, as you begin to ascend 
those hills under the rays of the early sun, you find what 
mountains they are ! All the riches of the plain flourish 
on their sides, and, like an audience in an amphitheatre, 
are only the more impressive for the elevation. As the 
road winds up scientifically, down come peasant girls in 
their blue petticoat and red bodice, and now and then a 



262 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

strapping mountaineer, with a living lamb slung over 
his back, striding straight down hill by short paths to 
the town. 

When one has reached the elevation of a few hundred 
feet, the scene excites repeated bursts of admiration. 
The opposite ridges, with their upland woods and vil- 
lages, the valley at your feet, with its flowering trees 
and glistening town, the glorious bay, stretching away 
to seaward, with its wild coast, and close around you 
the union of garden beauties and mountain grandeur, 
altogether form a spectacle almost worth going to Spez- 
zia to see. 

Bays ! How beautiful are bays ! Those that have 
made the deepest impression upon one's memory, re- 
called by this, come up for comparison : Table Bay and 
False Bay, the western and eastern portals of the Cape ; 
New York brilliantly, and Dublin grandly beautiful; 
Aboukir, where the eye finds nothing and the memory 
much ; St. Jean d' Acre, with Carmel on the right, Leba- 
non on the left, the mountains of Nazareth behind, and 
Tabor only hidden. Two only remain to be compared. 
Is it the effect of boyish prepossession, or is it not true, 
that could we spread a Neapolitan sky over CIcav Bay, 
the bay of my boyhood, over its broad sheet of twenty 
miles of unbroken water, having for its south wall the 
Spread Eagle mountain of St. Patrick, for its north the 
hills of Ballycroy ; away out against the Atlantic, Clare 
Island, nature's gigantic breakwater ; and up toward 
its head that incomparable labyrinth of more than three 



THE SUNRISE SHORE. 263 

hundred islands — some mere rocks, some sheep-walks, 
some with a single hut, some with villages — is it early 
prejudice that makes one think that under ItaHan light 
this would bear comparison with the Bay of Naples, 
excepting always that one sublime and incomparable 
object, the burning mountain ? 

The road is excellent, the horses good, the postill- 
ions civil ; every new winding brings into view a new 
sublimity or a new beauty. Flowers by your feet, 
blossoms overhead, bare summits up aloft, a combina- 
tion of sunshine and of snow, of spring bloom and 
winter sternness, all raise the spirits to the highest 
point. 

As we were slowly winding up one of the steepest 
ascents, just before us having a lonely chapel on the 
shoulder of a mountain, and behind one of those little 
towns perched on the very point of a summit, evident- 
ly the old nest whence some vulture used to watch, in 
other days, for his prey, the hills rang with the crack 
of a musket. It was soon repeated. Every thing was 
so cheerful that one immediately interpreted it for a 
wedding gun ; and there they came, bride and bride- 
groom, in the bright colors of the mountaineers, and 
then their troop of friends, all smiling, and after a while 
two priests, who had been performing the ceremony 
away at the lone chapel ; and the guns still rang in the 
hills as the little group went slowly up toward the 
eagle-nest village. May they have a happy home ! 

Who can tell the wildness and beauty of a valley 



264 ITALY IIT TEAKSrnON". 

into whicli the descent is as rapid as tbat on one side 
of Grassmere, with its little town, and river at the bot- 
tom ; its rich crops far up on the hills, and then the 
dark summits of serpentine, barren and rugged, frown- 
ing against the sky ? After a while we leave behind 
all the vines and olives, all the pleasant blossoms, all 
the garden scenery: we are in the region of the ser- 
pentine, and among the ever-chilling winds. Here the 
eye travels away over summits of snow; yonder over 
the glorious Mediterranean, in which direction the ho- 
rizon stretches out and out, until the eye itself seems 
following infinity. A few lone flocks remain ; here and 
there a miserable hut, built for men to keep the way in 
repair ; and above the very highest points of the pass, 
where the summits seemed bare, a woman or two were 
tending cattle. The top of the pass of Velva reached, 
how gloriously the Mediterranean and the valleys open 
out upon the other side ! And down we go from our 
elevation of more than 2000 feet, now with a vision of 
bays and promontories, and a little sea-side town, Mo- 
neglia, now with the mountain seeming as if it would 
push us over the precipice. In a little while we are 
again down upon the sea-shore, where the pretty town 
of Sestri stands, with its back against a wooded head- 
land, and before it the wide Bay of Cliiavari, terminated 
on the other side by Cape Fino. 

For miles and miles along the bay the road is level 
as a floor ; sometimes clifis that look now like marble 
and now like slate edging it almost into the water, and 



THE SUNRISE SHOKE. 265 

at Other times the plain opening out between the sea 
and the mountains, where wells for irrigation, not un- 
like those in India, and aloe hedges, and soft air, make 
one almost believe that one is in the tropics again. 
The signs of plenty, if not of comfort, are abundant ; 
and were the homesteads but orderly and clean, the eye 
could have little to desire. 

Chiavari is a pretty town, where one gets as good a 
dinner as traveler need wish for in a remarkably short 
time, and then for the mountains once more ! We are 
soon again high up, with the sea under the cliffs close 
by, and all the beauties of upland vegetation apparently 
richer and more glorious than ever. After alternating 
between peeps at the sea, shut up views of the hills, 
outstretching prospects of the Mediterranean, and the 
darkness of tunnels through the rock, you reach the 
hills just above Recco; and the sun is in the west, 
and the Mediterranean all in a glow, and the mount- 
ains before you push themselves out bluff into the sea 
in one long succession of promontories ; and far away, 
gleaming over a wide extent in the sunset, is Genoa 
the Proud. 

A poor working-man, who had been toiling toward 
his native city in the hope of finding employment there, 
which he had failed to do in other places, and had got 
leave for the greater part of the day to sit behind on 
our carriage, with a beaming look pointed and said, 
"Look at Genoa! Look at Genoa!" And even for 
one who had not been born there it was a sight to look 

M 



266 ITALY IN TEAKSITION. 

at, SO far away, and yet seeming so queenly by the sea 
and in the sun. I had often thought that there was no 
coast road to be compared with that between Belfast 
and the Giant's Causeway, but even it must yield the 
palm. 

Without seeing either Naples or the Sunrise Shore, 
no one can judge of what Italy is. Here you learn the 
secret of much praise and poetry, which, while you are 
in other parts of the country, appears forced. Garden 
of Europe, after all ! But " in the garden there was a 
sepulchre ;" and in it, until the other day. Religion lay 
buried under the gorgeous Oriental mausoleum, with 
Liberty, her eldest son, on the one hand, and on the 
other Virtue, her peerless daughter. Art studied and 
toiled in vain to make up for the loss of them all. But 
a breath from on high is passing over the land ; there 
is a stirring among the tombs, the uprising of a host. 
May He who giveth life guide all this movement to 
happy and holy ends ! 

As one looks back, and dwells again and again on 
such scenery as that of the Sunrise Shore, how strongly 
comes home the impression that this world is furnished 
for us by a Father, not a mere master ! In furnishing a 
house for a servant, you would think of his health and 
comfort ; but for whom would you put in flowers, and 
paintings, and singing-birds, and other tokens of regard 
for tastes and feelings ? Only for a child, or for one 
whom you loved. 



CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 



A BRIGHT sun rose on a Sunday morning as we en- 
tered the harbor of Civita Vecchia. The place looks 
rather ragged. A large white flag was flying from a 
small craft, bearing St. Peter full length in yellow, St. 
Paul in red, and above them the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven, surmounted by the triple crown of priestly, 
kingly, and imperial dominion on earth. No boats, no 
stir, no landing, no sign of it ! " What are we wait- 
ing for ?" asks an Irish voice. " Waiting till the police 
has satisfied itself that we are worthy to set foot on 
the sacred soil of Civita Vecchia !" A young lady who 
talked French so well that she must have been edu- 
cated in France, probably in a convent, told me very 
authoritatively that I was mistaken ; we were not wait- 
ing for the police to examine our credentials, but for 
the medical authorities to see if we had a clean bill of 
health : a priest had told her so. Of course, I held my 
tongue and smiled. After a half hour or so an official 
came on board and called out a name. A gentleman 
came forward and received a " permit" to land. Sev- 
eral freshmen ran to the gangway to share his boat, 
and came back to inquire what was the matter. Soon 



270 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

a second official, and then started another party, which 
had accompanied a bishop on board the day before; 
after them went the bishop himself. The Frenchmen 
began to grow testy; they were "only Frenchmen," 
and had to wait while these priests, and friends of 
priests, had permits sent off for them. As the bishop 
left, one of the Frenchmen said, "Ah! the ffaiUard^he 
is fond of women ; he was smTounded by them all 
night." There certainly had been nothing to call for 
this remark, and no Englishman would have thought 
of making it. The bishop and the ladies of his party 
had been perfectly decorous ; but the system makes 
men suspicious. 

As one permit after another came, the young lady of 
the bill of health looked very queer. At last, about 
two hours after the anchor dropped, one portentous 
man stands on the deck. His hands are full of per- 
mits ; he begins calling out name after name ; each 
man takes his own in silent thankfulness, scrambles for 
a boat, and soon touches the well-guarded soil of the 
sacred kingdom. 

The Custom-house people were slow, but very civil, 
and did not beg, or seem to look for bribes — no small 
thing for a place so near Rome. We were glad to get 
into the hotel and begin the rest of the Lord's day ; 
but, I think, all the other passengers went off direct to 
Rome. After a while I went out for a quiet walk. 
The street in which the hotel stands is broad, fringed 
with high buildings, looking like barracks, which some 



CI VITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 271 

are. At the head of it is a kind of old rampart, now 
undergoing repair and extension, the works on which, 
to the credit of the papal government, were suspended 
for the Sunday. 

Just as I reached the head of this main street, a man 
turned the corner in a condition not writable. He had 
been making the most private use possible of a public 
place, and had not staid, before facing the chief street, 
to make himself fit to be seen. He could hardly hob- 
ble, and was putting matters right at leisure. In Rome 
I had seen such things, but never in any other city, and 
there only in out-of-the-way places near the Tiber, and 
in the region of the Mounts. The French are indecent 
enough, but leagues away from this. 

We beard a friar preach. He had a little platform 
of about ten feet square erected under the pulpit, evi- 
dently to be better heard. On it stood a large crucifix, 
the knee of the figure reaching to the head of the friar, 
who was tall and thin, and also a gilt chair, with crim- 
son and yellow damask. He began by chanting a 
prayer at the feet of the image. Then he sat down, 
and began to talk his exordium. The subject was Pen- 
itence or Confession. As he warmed he stood up, and 
walked about at long range on the platform. 

He sometimes addressed them as Signori^ " Gentle- 
men ;" at others as Cari^ " Beloved ;" at others as Fra- 
telli^ " Brethren." It was the first time I had heard 
the last from an Italian priest. " My dear brother," he 
said, "you confess, and think it is all right. But how 



272 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

do you conduct yourself ? Ah ! my brother, you are 
belching blasphemies all the day long; and when you 
enter your house, it is like a savage, to abuse your wife, 
and curse the children." He informed this dear broth- 
er that confession with such fruits was not good. His 
great point was to get them to confess. - They thought 
it hard and comfortless, and it was hard to make a good 
confession ; but if they only forced themselves to it for 
a little while they would take a real liking to it. He 
complimented the beauty of their city, and twice re- 
ferred to the happiness of living in such a delightful 
place. He wound up by an earnest exhortation to 
come to confession ; and, sitting down in his gilded 
chair, told a story of a young lady who had committed 
a shameful sin, which she could not bring herself to 
confess to her own priest, but, finding a Jesuit father 
of celebrity, VN^hom he named, preaching, as he then 
w^as, she confessed to him ; but either she withheld the 
fact, or some other flaw (what, I did not exactly hear) 
was in her confession. It came to the knowledge of 
the father. She was struck with death, and he had a 
vision, and saw her soul in hell. 

Talking of their fasting, he made a hit at them which 
caused a universal smile ; but I did not catch the point 
of the joke. 

Although our baggage had been searched on landing, 
we had to get all we took to the hotel searched again 
before leaving on the Monday. Then every separate 
package was sealed with lead. Our j^assports were 



CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 273 

taken from ns at the railway, to be delivered to ns 
again in Rome. English was a good deal spoken in 
the train ; Irish and Belgians seemed to be strong. 

The natnral features of the country between Civita 
Vecchia and Rome are fine. Swelling hills alternate 
Avitli wide plains, and a rich flat runs along the sea- 
shore, the desolation of which surpassed my ideas. It 
forcibly reminded me of the country betw^een Beer- 
sheba and the Hills of Judah. It was the same cross 
between a country and a desert, soil and grass, flocks 
and brush, and an occasional patch of poor cultivation ; 
but no villages, no towns, only some of those horrid 
haystack huts, with here and there a house ; in one 
place a broken bridge, and one or two big buildings, 
like government establishments. " Haystack hut" seems 
an odd term, but it is a right one ; they are not bee- 
hive like Kaffir huts, nor mud like an Irish or Egyptian 
hovel ; they are things exactly like an oblong haystack : 
a mass of thatch on a frame of wood, with high roof, 
rather after the Fiji model, and neither plank, nor beam, 
nor wall to be seen — just thatch, all thatch. The first 
time I saw them was in the Campagna, between Rome 
and Albano, and it was a good while before the truth 
dawned upon me that they were habitations for the 
heirs of the Romans. At first I took them to be sheds 
for my old Indian friends, the bufialoes. 

The vegetation on some jungle-tracts proved that the 
soil is rich. Here and there the bufialo showed his 
dingy and stupid form — meet emblem of the soil, an 

M2 



274 ITALY IN TRANSITIOlSr. 

Asiatic beast of burden. At one point of the route I 
counted eleven minutes of railway running between 
one cultivated spot and another ; at a second, no less 
than seventeen. And is this the continution of the 
Sunrise Shore? The same land, with a finer sweep of 
plains, with gentler hills, with more equally distributed 
waters, but with a few scattered groups of peasants in- 
stead of multitudes — with desolation instead of bloom. 

As we sped along amid this natural wealth and artifi- 
cial penury, a flying column of smoke to the right caught 
my eye. Off" the coast of Egypt, and again far up the 
Nile, I had hailed that flying flag of grimy hue as an 
English institution. There it is again, the old skyward 
column of industrious, work-doing, bread-bringing, ugly, 
useful smoke. " It is the Tiber," I cried ; and as we 
all looked, a sail or two confirmed the token, and in a 
few minutes more we were gazing on the yellow tide 
of the old Roman river. 

After a while the heights of the Aventine come in 
view, and there is the great new church of St. Paul's, 
glowing with internal embellishments, and haunted by 
fever, till, in summer, it is forsaken even by monks. 
And yonder is the pyramid tomb of Caius Cestus, close 
by the old walls, and helping the eye to fix upon the 
English burial-ground, where so many of our nation 
rest. 

The first time I had seen the Campagna of Rome was 
from the north. After leaving Viterbo I had walked 
on alone to the top of Monte Cimino, and there enjoyed 



CIVITA YECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 275 

that wonderful view from a height of nearly three thou- 
sand feet, in w^hich the eye takes in an immense range 
of the Apennines, with the valley of the Tiber, including 
objects that remind you of Fabius andPio KTono, Virgil 
and Antonelli ; and, although a day's journey distant, 
through that bright air one sees an object which first 
fixes the eye, and then raises the question, " Can that be 
St. Peter's ?" and then, judging from the natural objects 
within view and from the apparent distance, comes the 
conviction that it must be so. 

But oh, where were the glorious cities and the multi- 
tudes that used to throng these plains ? From that 
height one went down, passing through some tolerable 
villages, and one or two ruinous cities, until the Cani- 
pagna was fairly reached ; and to take for instance the 
little town of Monterosi as a sample, what a scene of 
filth, and ruin, and wretchedness it is ! Look at the 
thing called a butcher's shop ; look at the place that is 
said to be a coffee-house ; at the condition of the streets; 
at the heads of the children ; at the clothes of the wom- 
en ; at the skin of the men ; and then go and look into 
the little neglected building, with the few miserable 
daubs, and more miserable statues and tawdry orna- 
ments, that calls itself a church. There is about every 
thing a feeling of hopelessness that goes very deep into 
one's soul. Tou hardly know which is w^orse, this, or 
the desolation through which you pass afterward near- 
er the Eternal City, over the ancient dwelling-places of 
the Romans. Bare lands, poor-looking men now and 



276 ITALY IN TE.V]SrSITION. 

then passing, with carts that in England might be fair- 
ly exhibited as agricultural curiosities ; and the only ob- 
ject looking really comfortable and happy being the 
asses, which are of a very fine breed, much larger than 
the Egyptian ones, though not so sprightly : this is the 
scene, till all the day you go wondering how bad gov- 
ernment can thus lay waste a country. The night had 
fallen before we entered the gate of Rome. There was 
in the diligence a Roman and his wife, who had been 
away for some time, perhaps some years : " There it is," 
she said, with great feeling, " the capital of the world !" 
and, after all that one had been passing through, the 
words of the poor lady did strike strangely upon the 
ear ; and as she gazed out uj)on the Piazza del Popolo, 
the really beautiful entrance to the city, she clapped her 
hands with positive delight, and cried, " Look ! look ! 
don't you see the gas ? Don't you see the gas ?" And 
it was quite true : there it was. The government had 
at last made up its mind to confer uj)on the city this 
wonderful advantage of being lighted by gas ; but even 
then it was judiciously restrained to a few of the prin- 
cipal streets. 

At two other points I crossed the Campagua. From 
Rome to Albano the desolation appears to be almost 
perfect, but you have not, as between Civita Vecchia 
and the city, the same advantage of undulating ground 
and hills close at hand to reheve the dullness of the 
scene. Traveling slowly over a flat, looking at nothing 
but bare lands, where there is some cultivation, but no 



f 



CIYITA YECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 277 

towns or villages, with a few of those intolerably miser- 
able cabins already described, with buffaloes here and 
there, and with the memory of thousands and tens of 
thousands who once rejoiced in manly life upon these 
plains, the spirits fairly give way. On reaching the far 
side of that plain, I remember saying to my wife, " Aft- 
er Avhat one has felt this morning, I doubt whether ever 
before I had what ought to be called a feeling of melan- 
choly. To see the ruin of a house, if it is not so old 
that all idea of a family is gone out of memory, is touch- 
ing ; to see that of a village under the same circum- 
stances, still more so ; and that of a town, distressing ; 
but never before did I see the ruin of a country, and of 
such a country, and all this Avrought in the name of the 
Church of Christ." There is room for all the Pope's 
Irish brigade to have broad and fertile lands on the 
Campagna; but fever has rejoiced OA^er desolation so 
long, that woe to the first generation of those who set- 
tle here. 

Another line across the Campagna is to Frascati, to 
which there is now a railway; and matters are so ju- 
diciously arranged that if, before leaving your own door 
in Rome for the railway-office, you put your wife into a 
private carriage, you may by possibility reach Frascati 
by rail in time to bid her welcome ; but it is not cer- 
tain, as she may have the start of you. The things are 
very nicely balanced: you have so long to wait at the 
office, so far to go to the station, and so long to wait 
there, and to take it so quietly on the road, and make 



278 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

stops where there are neither towns nor villages to stop 
for, that if the government has been compelled to yield 
to the unseemly innovation of a railway, it does at least 
avoid any thing that could encourage undue intercourse ; 
and it is perfectly right. It has its own instincts, which 
tell it that the steam-horse is an English charger that 
carries English ideas. 

The way to Frascati lies through unbroken solitude ; 
the land is for the most part cultivated, but where do 
the people come from ? No town, no village ; the num- 
ber of houses the whole way, about twelve miles, might 
easily be counted. The old arches of the Roman aque- 
ducts hold up their giant bones in protest that those 
valleys were a place for men, but the solitude around 
proclaims that for men they are now no place. The 
moment you touch the hills the scene changes ; you are 
in the midst of rich vegetation, vineyards, olives, every 
thing that ought to confer wealth upon a peoj^le, every 
thing that does make interest for a traveler ; and the 
memories of immortal Romans meet you at every step ; 
and some of the greatest names in the history of mind 
are familiar recollections upon those hills. It was just 
here that Cicero and his friends used to have those dis- 
cussions which will refresh and interest human intellects 
to the latest day. 

One day in Frascati, being weary and waiting for the 
train, I w^ent into a coffee-house : it was during Holy 
Week, and Italy was boiling with great events. Great 
events were just occurring at the court of Rome. There 



CIYITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGlSrA. 279 

was no paper on the table, no magazines, nothing for 
any human being to read. It was a nice coffee-house : 
would that we could have such in towns of the size in 
England — a place to invite people to go and sit, and 
spend an hour, looking on beautifully-painted walls and 
ceiling, and enjoying an open and lofty chamber, with- 
out spending money to any ruinous extent, or incurring 
temptations ! What a civilizing institution the coffee- 
house is! It evidently has had its effect upon Italy. 
Goldoni, in his Bottega del Caffe^ makes one of his 
characters say, " Formerly brandy used to be in vogue, 
but now coffee." In England the one great institu- 
tion is the public house, the most popular, the most 
powerful, the most costly of all British institutions, 
and the most abominable one in Europe; and Mr. 
Gladstone deserves everlasting gratitude for his states- 
manlike endeavors to undermine it. WelJ, but about 
this coffee-house ! After I had remained lolling on the 
comfortable bench for a while alone, in came an old 
gentleman, and sat down without ordering any thing, 
or seeming to have any idea of ordering. 

" How do you do, Signor Joseph ?" said the waiter. 

" Oh what a windy day !" 

"Yes, very windy ; any news ?" 

" Oh no, there is no news." 

" Have you seen the Giornale di Roma .^" 

" Oh no," said the old man, '' I have not seen it ;" as 
much as to say, ''What's the use?" "I have seen the 
Civilta Cattolica^ and there is nothing in it ; just the 
old things." 



280 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

Presently in came a young man, and, addressing him- 
self also to Signor Joseph, he said, " Is there any news ?" 

" No, none at all ;" and he began to tell that he had 
heard something or other from Central Italy, repeating 
some of the facts of several weeks old in a garbled 
and incorrect form. A middle-aged man now joined 
the party. 

" Is there any thing about General Lamoriciere ?" 

"IsTo," said one; "No," said another. Had they 
seen the " Journal of Rome ?" '' No," they all said in 
the same tone ; " what's the use ?" and old Signor Jo- 
seph repeated once more, "I have seen the Civilta Cat- 
toUca^ but it is just the solite cose — just the old things." 

"But," said the waiter, "you ought to read the 
' Gazette of Genoa.' That really does contain some 
news. I used sometimes to see that." Now this 
" Gazette of Genoa" is the one paper in the Italian 
language which this paternal government allows to 
cross its frontier; the only one that does not contain 
so much poison that it would be dangerous to the 
political health of the Roman people ; and even it is 
not quite safe, but still it is allowed. Poor fellows ! 
after all, they had a general impression that there was 
such a place as the world, and that they somehow or 
other had a sort of connection with it, and they would 
like to have some idea of what it was doing. They 
seemed very uncomfortable, and fumbling about in the 
dark, and knowing nothing of what was taking place 
outside their little gate. While I Avas just thinking of 



CI VITA VECCHIA AISTD THE CAMPAGNA. 281 

the art by which human minds could be shut up in this 
way, and accounting to myself better than I had done 
before for the glee of the students in the coffee-house 
at Milan, with the room full of publications, and their 
own tongues perfectly free, the door opened, and in 
walked a priest in his surplice, with something in his 
hand. The men touched their hats to him respectfully 
enough. He passed on to an inner room. 

" What are they about?" said one. "He is not going 
in to visit any one, is he ?" 

Presently the waiter returned, and said he had want- 
ed some little thing ; and then he gave a grumble, and 
said, " Ah, he does not leave us his blessing." The 
middle-aged man, who seemed the sharpest of the set, 
said, " No, he has no blessing for any body but the 
women." 

"Is Antonio married?" said Signor Joseph. 

" No, he is not married," was the reply. 

"How is that?" 

" Well, there is some talk about the girl going into a 
convent ;" and then began a discussion upon nunneries, 
which I certainly shall not repeat ; but the conclusion 
of it was that the middle-aged man said, " They ought 
to adopt a law that no nun shall be admitted under 
the age of thirty-five. I think that might be tolerably 
safe." Every now and then these poor fellows would 
give a furtive glance at the stranger, as if trying to 
know whether he understood them or not, or whether 
he was one before whom they might speak their minds. 



apttr xh. 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 



We enter by the Trastevere (the "over the water" 
part of Rome), which looks dingy, yet less so, that is, 
less filthy, than a few years ago. Two Irishmen are 
with me on the omnibus, one evidently a Romanist, the 
other doubtful. Depending on me for interpreting, 
they feel some respect, but seem to peer hard into my 
views of the Eternal City, not feeling as yet quite sure 
of their own. Mine are decidedly behind a veil. Those 
of my Catholic friend become rather depressed, as bad 
smells, dirty sights, and despicable-looking friars en- 
counter us. 

"Is that a basilica?" asked the friend of doubtful 
color, pointing to a large and ugly church. "I dare 
say. My impression is, that ' Plenary and Peepetu- 
AL Indulgence,' which is promised by the inscription, 
indicates a basilica ; but I am not quite clear as to what 
that promise means." They did not feel disposed to 
enlighten me. "Is it a basilica?" I asked a Roman. 
" Yes, St. Mary of the Trastevere." " And what is 
meant by ' Plenary and Perpetual Indulgence ?' " " Oh, 
all the basilicas have that privilege over the other 
churches. We have seven of them; they are the great 



286 ITALY tN^ TEANSmOX. 

original Chi'istian churches, and have special privileges, 
of which that is one." " But what is it ?" " Oh, you 
know, if you visit the basihca, and pray with due devo- 
tion, you have indulgence." " Yes, but what is it ?" 
" It abates the pains of Purgatory." " But if plenary 
and perpetual, why go to Purgatory at all ?" " Oh, 
that is an affair for the priests." 

Through an old lumbering arch into a sort of Wap- 
ping Street, and I, in my office of interpreter, say to the 
Cathohc, " We are now entering the Street of the Holy 
Ghost." He attempted a remark, but it stuck in his 
throat ; and as I pointed to the words, " Borgo Sa?ito 
Sjoirito^^'' he evidently felt shocked. The crowds of 
French soldiers did not escape the notice of his com- 
rade. " What a thing for one government to be held 
up at home by another in that way !" Poor fellow ! it 
was a depressing process. Grand ideas of beauty, glo- 
ry, and hoHness were crushed with every roll of the 
omnibus wheels. 

" There's St. Peters," I cried, glad to relieve him ; 
but it showed through a vista of dingy houses, adorned, 
as usual in Rome, with " washing" hanging out of the 
Avindows. Still it was St. Peter's ; and with one's old 
admiration of the dome, I felt its grandeur. But he 
only saw just the dome, with that unbeautiful fore- 
ground ; and all he said was, '' Why, it's very like St. 
Paul's." On to the Bridge of St. Angelo : as I was 
pointing out the features of Hadrian's tomb, he caught 
the sign of the Pope's dependency waving in front of 



HOME IN HOLY WEEK. 287 

it, and it seemed to produce on him a feeling which re- 
minded me of my own when I saw the crescent banner 
of the Turk floating upon Mount Sion. He interrupted 
my remarks with, " The French flag !" in a tone so af- 
fecting as to silence one for a time. Ay, the French 
flag, there at the Pass of the Tiber, between the Vati- 
can and the bulk of Rome ! The French flag, not the 
Pope's, protecting the way to the chair of St. Peter, 
protecting the site of the Holy Inquisition, protecting 
the cardinals and the monks, and all the powers of the 
Church. That flag threw a shadow on the waters of 
the Tiber which robbed them of half their glory in the 
eye of my neighbor. 

Poor old river ! as full, and fresh, and strong as need 
to be ; but it bears only fishermen on its bosom, and 
laves but the palaces of priests, or the abodes of discon- 
tented citizens. The one decent vessel that floats on 
its waters is no child of its banks, but the " English Fire 
Ship," to borrow a name from the Bedouin Mousa on 
the shores of the Red Sea. Instead of men who impose 
respect upon the world, looking over the bridge with 
proud and loving eyes, it has on the battlements the 
stone forms of fantastic angels ! 

How often I exclaimed, while musing upon the banks 
of the Nile, "What constitutes the identity of a river?" 
This feeling came back strongly here, at this new sight 
of the bereaved Tiber. Is it the same river which 
coursed under Horatius? Where are the waters that 
flowed then ? Where the earth they touched ? Where 



288 ITALY IN TEAKSITION. 

the buildings they passed by? Where the men and 
beasts that drank then ? All gone, never to be gather- 
ed again. Not a drop of the stream, or a grain of the 
sand, or a yard of the bank the same. Yet it is the Ti- 
ber — the old, old Tiber of the kings, the consuls, the 
emperors, the popes, preserving its place, its complex- 
ion, its name, and holding fast its relations to the sky 
from which it is fed, and the earth out of which it 
springs, and the sea into which it poured of old its 
freights of glory, and now pours its forsaken stream. 
At that point of the Castle St. Angelo the emblems of 
its condition meet — the grand old tomb of Hadrian, 
the statue-angels of the Bridge, the lively flag of Gaul: 
its captains are dead, its religion is Art, its guardian 
power the lord of the trans- Alpine tri-color. 

Across the river, our Catholic friend seemed little re- 
lieved by the aspoct of the city — ^better, but yet poor. 
Soon we were working up the narrow street leading to 
the Piazza di Spagna : things looked cleaner. But still, 
for one who had fancied this city to be the joy of the. 
whole earth, it is a sober progress. Dublin would beat 
it ten times over, and any watering-place in England 
Avould be ashamed of the comparison. I pointed out 
the fact that gas-lights had been allowed. He did not 
seem to think that any wonderful superiority. " We 
are now coming to the great street of Rome, the Re- 
gent Street, Strand, Oxford Street, and Westbourne 
Terrace all in one — the Corso." He communicated this 
great fact to his friend, and both looked out for the 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 289 

grand street. After a while he said, " The Corso is the 
great street?" I replied, "Yes, the only one that is 
permitted the dignity of a side pavement." But scarce- 
ly had I used the words when I had to cry, " Well, 
I declare! the foot-pavement is extended beyond the 
Corso ; here is some here," But in a moment we were 
crossing a street like a hundred that might be picked 
out of other cities, and I said, " That is the Corso." 
The good Catholic took a long look at the high houses 
and narrow way, at the passable shops and shoals of 
shovel hats, and he replied, " That's the Corso." Sack- 
ville Street was in his eye. 

The Via Condotti ! full of English men and women, 
and lined with shops for trinkets, silks, and works of 
art. Pretty things ! What a trade in them might be 
done with England, if matters were well managed ! 

In the Piazza di Spagna my comrade asks, " What is 
that ?" pointing to a pillar. " That is the great achieve- 
ment of the present Pope ; the column of the Immac- 
ulate Conception : he has added a pillar to Rome and 
an article to the faith." 

We set off for the Capitol. The coachman was a 
shrewd fellow, and I rode on the box for the sake of 
talk. We passed that fine old column of Antoninus, 
which now, as the inscription tells, is purged from all 
heathenism, and converted into a good Christian pillar, 
with the statue of an apostle replacing that of an em- 
peror. Then came the Forum of Trajan, and its grand 
old column too, like the other, covered with rich sculp- 

N 



290 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

ture ; and at its foot that picturesque group of broken 
pillars, serving only to tell that once this spot was 
thronged with life, and shadowed with magnificence. 
Round about, houses, with " washing" hanging out of 
the windows, churches, beggars, French soldiers, Papal 
ge7is cVarmes^ and foreigners in carriages. A little way 
up is the Quirinal, the Pope's second palace, a beautiful 
abode in fine taste, with noble gardens. The first day I 
saw it "w^ashing" was hanging out of eleven windows, 
and the second day out of seven. 

As to the gens cVarmes^ they never appeared alone; 
always a patrol of five or six together. The papal 
soldiers, too, with the blue coat and red pantaloons of 
the French, were so much like them that it was hard to 
distinguish. On the hat, instead of the outspread eagle, 
you had the keys of the kingdom of peace and the tiara 
of Christ's vicar. Squads of ge7%s cVarines and squads 
of priests seemed the only thing noticeable ; the former 
a sign of terror in the government, the latter a sign of 
Holy Week. 

Last night a tradesman had surprised me by reply- 
ing to some simple question about the state of things in 
Rome in a tone of loud complaint. We had given no 
sign of our opinions ; yet, unlike the caution I had 
found at a previous visit, off he went. " Every thing 
is in a miserable condition : no work for the poor, no 
trade for the shopkeepers, no hope for any one but the 
priests." I said something to the effect that they must 
find a friend in ''the Holy Father." "-Santo Padre P' 



KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 291 

he said, as an Orangeman might say it; ^^ Santo Padre! 
the poor people now cry in his ears, ' Holy Father and 
dear bread ! Holy Father and dear bread !' " 

" You don't mean that ?" 

" Mean it ! that I do— ah !" 

In keeping with this were the remarks of the coach- 
man, as the priests passed in troops with that wonder- 
ful variety of the species which Rome alone can show 
— ^black, brown, white, and gray ; now with hoods, now 
with cords, now with red and blue crosses, now with 
the step of a potentate, now with the box of a beggar ; 
one lean with penance, another rosy with rural health, 
another gross with sloth and feeding ; now in the prel- 
ate's purple, now in the dirt of a pauper ; some appear- 
ing learned, pure, and grave ; many commonplace and 
content, not a few polished men of upper life, and a 
great multitude coarse and low, with no more light of 
intellect or grace upon their countenances than on those 
of their brothers who hold the plow or infest the high- 
way. With a few fine exceptions of men with open, 
benign human faces, they all look like dark and lonely 
men, isolated tools of Rome, watchmen who walk in 
the dark and spy out all men's ways. 

As I asked questions about this order and that, the 
coachman gradually got angry. " The people can bear 
it no longer ; this government of priests is horrid. 
They have brought us all to starvation, and they swarm 
like flies, and eat and drink." For any thing that had 
passed, I might have been a zealous Catholic ; and this 



292 ITALY IN TEA2S^S1TI0N. 

outburst, corresponding with what I had heard last 
night, and contrasting with the reserve of former years, 
took me by surprise. 

So, in talking of the late affair betw^een the people 
and the geiis cVarmes^ all was outspoken rancor. Two 
men, curriers, had been arrested just because they were 
known to be Liberals. The people hissed. French po- 
lice moved ; and, encouraged by this support, the papal 
ge7is d'^armes^ with drawm swords, rushed on and slash- 
ed away with the flat of the sword, say they ; but forty 
or fifty people were wounded, and some have died. I 
put down the number that seems to have most votes ; 
for many talked of it, and the estimate varied greatly. 

Amid such talk we wound through the poor streets 
lying between the Forum of Trajan and the grand old 
spot, the Forum Romanum. The coachman now and 
then stopped before a ruin. Now to the top of the 
tower of the Capitol. There are the grand old Sabine 
Hills, with Tivoli's white houses glistening on their 
sides. Then your eye, crossing the valley, rests on the 
Alban chain. Frascati is plain enough, w4th its per- 
petual memento of Cicero, eloquence, and philosophic 
discourse ; and Castel Gondolfo is plain, and the knoll 
xmder which lies Albano. Right and left spreads the 
Campagna — on the right merging its vast flat in a ho- 
rizon that looks like sea-shore, without showing water ; 
on the left running up to the blue hills ; on both sides 
waste, no smoke of towns, no sign of villages, no stir 
of men; the gaunt old forms of Roman aqueducts stalk- 



EOME 11^ HOLY WEEK. 293 

ing over the Frascati side of the plain, and at other 
points a stern fragment, as if the rusting armor of the 
dead giants. Near lie the typical heaps of Rome's 
memorials, the Baths of Caracalla, the Palace of the 
Caesars, the swelling bulk of the Colosseum. Nearer, 
the Arch of Constantino, that of Titus, the Via Sacra, 
and, just below, the Roman Forum, with its fragments 
of ancient temples, and its one entire arch. Three col- 
umns here, two there, half a dozen yonder, a few bases 
in one place, a pavement in another, and a name for 
each, are all that remains to tell how grand was this 
spot some lifetimes ago. But few of the stones are 
left, and none of the men. 

One looks down from that height along that famous 
way where these spectre temples and mouldering bones 
of palaces call up the memory of life by the sight of 
death's handiwork. And how one looks and looks, and 
goes on looking, the eye wandering from the hill of the 
Palaces to the Titanic heap of the Baths, and then to 
the Colosseum, still sending up a cry of heathen mirth 
and Christian agony, and then to the Arch of Titus, 
under which Jerusalem sits and weeps, while old Rome 
triumphs ! 

How strange that among all the historic ruins of pa- 
gan times the idea now represented by living men is 
always a Bible one ! Among the Pyramids, Moses — in 
Nineveh, the Hebrew Kings — at Athens, the preaching 
Paul — here in Rome, the golden candlestick of the Tem- 
ple, the unrecorded martyrs of the Colosseum. What 



294 ITALY IK TRANSITIOlSr. 

they believed in lives, and yearly grows younger and 
stronger; but the beliefs against which they stood up 
have passed away. 

After the great ruins, immediately under one, the eye 
seeks out the seven hills. There is the old Aventine 
close by the Tiber, with its crowning convent, a real 
mount ; and there, nearer, the Palatine, cradle of Rome 
and cinder-heap of her imperial halls, with the odd in- 
truder under its flank, a round, tall chimney, of un- 
mistakable Manchester family, the English gas-works. 
These two are plain enough; so is the Capitoline on 
which we stand ; so, yonder, far on the left, is the Qui- 
rinal, crowned with that long, straight range of build- 
ings, the Pope's j)alace ; and between it and the Pala- 
tine, the other three, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, though 
not traceable as mounts, are distinguishable as regions, 
and may be marked by the Lateran Basilica with its 
grenadier statues, by the two domes of Santa Maria 
Maggiore, and by the line thence to the Quirinal. 

The modern city comes next. Across the Tiber the 
high Janiculan, and, beyond, the dome-topped Vatican, 
closing Rome tightly in with high land ; then the mass 
of St. Angelo, and the lofty heights of the Pincian, 
and, between, the little wilderness of tiles, towers, and 
domes, almost hiding the grand outline of the Pantheon, 
and traversed by the rapid lonely Tiber. No gay boat 
sporting on his bosom, he travels on, like a strong old 
grandfather on whose knees there are no children to 
play. 



ROME IK HOLY WEEK. 295 

What an enchanting light, making common forms 
lovely ! What a mass of historic recollections ! What 
grandeur of natural outline ! What wealth of ancient 
remains! and yet what absence of artificial beauty! 
The one grand dome on the Vatican Hill is the only 
fair form of art on which the eye rests. That of the 
Pantheon is smothered; the ruins are not beauty, but 
poetry in another form. Where are the spires of En- 
gland, the porticoes of Paris, the minarets of Cairo, the 
Campanili of Italy ! These church towers are shapeless 
and graceless ; poor, viewed from the ground ; wretch- 
ed, from above. The minor domes are not large enough 
to produce an efiect. Few cities, with such a site and 
such a heaven, would look so ragged and so destitute 
of sky-going beauty. Still the light, that spring of all 
loveUness, makes even the modern city pleasant to the 
eye. How long one could look! How much one 
would like to be here a whole day alone ! While in- 
dulging this thought the first time, the silence was bro- 
ken by an American voice, saying, " How crooked the 
Tiber is !" 

In the evening I began to say something to Maria, 
the servant, a sensible woman, about the people com- 
plaining. " Oh," she cried, " it is nothing but sorrow 
and outcry. The people are all in wretchedness. They 
say it is the priests who do it all. They say they must 
have a new religion, and that every thing is to be 
changed. But for the moment things are quiet. I 
don't know — we are all suffering ; and we are all igno- 



296 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

rant and wicked. Your people pray ; but in Rome very 
few of us ever pray." (I suppose she had seen our 
family prayer.) " We are all growing brutish. I'm a 
poor woman that can neither read nor write ; I come 
from the Sabine Hills. I lost my father and mother, 
and all my brothers and sisters — ^but one sister — and I 
had to come to Kome to find service. I have been in 
this house ever since — twelve years. I got married 
because they told me he was a hard-working young 
man, who would get me a morsel of bread. But he 
can't support me. I'm obliged to be in service all the 
same. I have been forced to pawn even the rings out 
of my ears. But my husband has got work now. Ho 
is a cook. This has been a sad year for cooks — so few 
foreigners ; but he is now employed by the friars of 

Church." 

" By the friars ! Do they need a cook ?" 
"Ah ! it's they that do— don't they eat !" 
" They eat only plain, penitential dishes ?" 
" Oh, fancy ! something else than that. They eat the 
best that can be cooked — sweets of all sorts." 

At the Lateran, leaving the Basilica for the moment, 
we turned to the neighboring building which covers the 
Holy Stair. It is a very considerable structure. There 
are three parallel staircases, the ones on the right and 
left being the humble attendants of the sacred one in 
the middle, by which the vulgar may go up, or the pil- 
grim, after his reverential ascent, come down. In ap- 
pearance the Holy Stair does not difier from the others. 



EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 297 

But see ! one, two, three ; men and women, gentlemen 
and ladies, townsfolk, peasants, and at least two soldiers 
— French soldiers they appear, but the Pope's wear the 
same uniform — from the lower steps up to the top, all 
on their tnees, all more or less uttering prayers, all 
pressing upward, the greater part patiently and honest- 
ly, some dodging and making the feet save the knees, 
some urging forward in hot haste, some stopping on 
each step to repeat a prayer, some looking up intently 
to the " Holy of Holies" at the top. Thirty human be- 
ings going through this process ! and they part only of 
a great stream running the whole week. Luther was 
once there. Don't despise them ; they may be as sin- 
cerely seeking God as he was. Don't despair of them ; 
they may be as near receiving a better light. 

It was on that stair, up there somewhere near the 
top, perhaps where that lady is toiling, that the voice 
from above sounded in the ear of the sturdy yet peni- 
tent monk, 

"The Just shall live by Faith." 
It was there that the ever memorable illapse of heaven's 
light fell upon that soul, and that, as he himself tells, the 
gates of Paradise seemed to open. Moment never for- 
gotten in the heart of Luther ! Moment ever to be re- 
membered in the history of Rome and of the universal 
Church ! May the same Spirit raise up many similar 
instruments in our days and in this place ! 

The stairs, though, at first sight, like the others, are 
soon seen to be covered with a case of wood, leaving 

]sr2 



298 ITALY IIS" TKAlSrSITION. 

the inner and holy stair to appear in open spaces, some 
of which are stained icith the blood of the Redeemer. 
The stair is that which he descended from Pilate's judg- 
ment seat ! 

Hence we pass to the top, where is a little dark chap- 
el, closed up, " The Holy of Holies:" you can see through 
a grating, and read a Latin inscription to the effect that 
there is not upon earth a spot more holy. No woman 
may enter ! It contains a picture hy St.LuJce — an exact 
likeness of the Savior when twelve years old. 

While looking at the door which leads into the spot 
where the table is kept on which the Last Supper was 
eaten, we found a sacristan willing to open and show it. 
Just after we had seen, up came a party. It was the 

Prince of C , with some ladies ; a canon prelate, in 

purple and ermine, was soon in attendance, and, in ad- 
dition to the Santissima table, showed a splendid glass 
box, set in gold, which contained a morsel of the napkin 
used by our Lord at the Supper. After he had finished 
with his party, he most politely asked us to walk in, and 
told the man to show us. It was hard to see ; for the 
cell was dark, and the glass sparkled in the candlelight. 
Still, a morsel of whitish something was visible inside 
the casket, and the custode reverently averred that it 
was a true piece of the very napkin used by our Lord. 

Hence we went to the Church of the Holy Cross in 
Jerusalem, where is a true and undoubted piece of the 
cross. There was more than the usual crowd of beg- 
gars, more than the usual disjolay of flowers — and very 



KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 299 

beautiful they were — and brilliant lights, and the floors 
strewed with leaves and blossoms, and poor old folk 
half praying, half staring, and now and then chatting 
and begging in the usual way ; but the true piece of the 
true cross was not then to be seen. 

Next, to St. Mary the Greater, less holy as a church, 
grander as an edifice. How fine its nave, with the long 
colonnade ! and those two side chapels are exquisite. 
The altar of jasper is in itself a work to wonder at for a 
long time. 

It is the hour of vespers. Canons in purple and er- 
mine ; minor canons in purple and squirrel hoods, priests 
in all colors, and singers in splendor, crowd the choir. 
Friars brown, black, and white, spot the church here 
and there. Counting all these, you have the bulk of 
the audience. How can this be ? In London, the an- 
nouncement of such a musical entertainment would se- 
cure multitudes at large prices ; here, beggars excepted, 
there are not sixty laity of Rome present. The singing 
is very fine ; but when the Miserere begins, it is some- 
thing indescribably beautiful. The rise and cadence of 
that artistic wail through those domes and colonnades 
is almost supernatural ; and all the human voice ! and 
all male voices ; for, in the prudery of Rome, women 
may not sing in church choirs. 

What a mystery is music — invisible, yet making the 
eye shine ; intangible, yet making all the nerves vibrate ; 
floating between earth and heaven; falling upon this 
world as if a strain from that above, ascending to that 



300 ITALY IX TBAXSinOX. 

as a thank-offeririg from onrs ! It is God's gift, and is 
too lofty for any tMng but His praise ; too near to the 
immaterial to be made the minister of sordid pleasure ; 
too clearly destined to mount upward to be used for 
inclining hearts to earth. Oh that the Churches knew 
how to smg, making music a joy, a triumph, a sun- 
shine song of larks, as well as a midnight song of 
nightingales ! 

The long-talked-of excommunication is issued. It 
has been posted up in the pubhc places of Rome, and 
it is to be bought for a few baiocchi. AU say it has 
produced no more effect than so many shovelfuls of 
peas thi'own among the people. Romans are so much 
accustomed to find misery and crime flourish on soils 
bedewed with papal benedictions, and to hear of peace, 
virtue, and liberty in countries scorched, not to say 
burnt up, with its curses, that they have reached a state 
of mind wherein the one and the other go for the value 
of the shows wherewith their utterance is accompanied. 
In this case it was thunder and thunderbolt, hurled in- 
deed by the Jove of the Vatican with his own red 
right hand, amid the flames of cardinal scarlet and the 
roar of ecclesiastical storms, but, unlike the potent 
Joves of other times, who marked their man, and hit 
his helmet if they did not crush his body, the present 
poor old thunderer, fearful that the after-clap might fall 
upon the Vatican, closed his eyes as he lanched the 
bolt, and, without aiming at any one in particular, fa- 
vored a whole nation or two in general with a curse. 



EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 301 

What ! no one named ? Not a man. A curse with- 
out a head designated for it to rest upon ? Even so. A 
few millions of infected caps, each carrying eternal 
death to the wearer, cast among a nation for every one 
who thinks one will iit to put it on ? Exactly. Not 
one marked for the sacrilegious head of Victor Emanu- 
el? No. Nor for the fiend of all malice, Cavour? 
Not even for him. Ugly words about the "govern- 
ment" of Sardinia; but a government is not a soul, 
and no soul is marked out by name as heir special of 
Rome's last curse. The bomb is fired, the piece has re- 
coiled, the shell has burst in high air, and curious peo- 
ple are examining the fragments. Ecco ! 

What an approach is that to St. Peter's ! First a 
grand " circus," larger than those in Regent Street, 
formed by two crescent colonnades of stately height ; 
then a square flanked by colonnades ; and then the 
long, easy steps ; and finally the front of the Basilica. 
But this disappoints one. It has none of the grace of 
pure Grecian, or of the soaring splendors of Gothic, and 
lacks even the prettiness of good Italian. The stone 
looks rough, the design ill composed, with small win- 
dows ; and the huge bulk of the Vatican, overtopping 
it like a Manchester warehouse, dwarfs it as to height, 
and destroys all idea of harmony. 

Inside, first a grand vestibule ; then bursts on the eye 
the resplendent temple, full of light, and glowing with 
every color that marble ever displayed. Under your 
feet marble — right, left, marble — white, red, green, vari- 



302 ITALY IN TEAKSITION. 

egated; in statues, in walls, in columns, niclies> and 
piles : mosaics and marble, marble and mosaics, gild- 
ing and carving, curious work, and Titanic propor- 
tions; vastness, and beauty, and pomp! "What do 
you think of it ?" You have had no time to think of 
it ; you are only feeling a rush of sensations, as yet not 
reflected on. You reach the great altar, which does 
make a distinct impression — of the grotesque. But the 
dome ! the dome ! You are fairly overwhelmed. You 
first gaze, then rest, then gaze again ; then lie down on 
your back, and look up and up, and wonder at the pow- 
er of thought to conceive and embody such an idea ; 
and then wonder more that you should feel so much 
under this small dome, because it is man's handiwork, 
and often so little under the great one just above it, be- 
cause it is the work of your own Maker. 

Presently you turn and look back; the nave is no 
length — so it seems ; and it ends meanly in a wall, with 
a few pilasters and smaU windows. It is a bold word 
to say " meanly," but one must report one's own im- 
pressions. Some, speaking of this apparent shortness 
of the nave, call it " perfection, the result of the fault- 
less proportions." To make great look little, perfec- 
tion ! Apply this to the dome ; are its proportions bad ? 
Yet it makes the full impression of its majestic bulk. 
If it looked small, being as large as it is, would it not be 
a fault ? It is not that the whole of the building looks 
so much less than is natural, as seems generally as- 
sumed; for the dome has full effect. It is the other 



KOME IN HOLY WEEK, 303 

parts, chiefly the nave. Murray accounts for the mini- 
fied appearance partly by the gigantic statuary, which 
takes off from the size of the building. This might af- 
fect the height, but hardly the length. And if you so 
stand that the statues are covered in their niches, it is 
just the same. What is it, then ? Laughed at or not, 
here is what one's own eye says : It is a fault in pro- 
portion. 

Stand at the great altar facing the entrance. What 
are you looking into ? A tunnel of stone ; colored, 
polished, sculptured, glowing, uplifted stone ; but still 
a tunnel, with petty windows at the end. Only four 
arches in all the length of that nave, and of those but 
one shows an opening to your eye. Through it you 
see — but not light — only stone ! As to the other three, 
you can tell where they are ; but the eye strikes against 
the pier beyond them without any opening. One space 
to take off the eye from the direct line, one breaking in 
of air and light upon the nave — all the rest stone, stone 
— a tunnel. This results from the proportion between 
the pier and the arch. One arch is separated from an- 
other by a pier of thirteen to fifteen paces long ! The 
pillar is not seen in the place as a support ; it is totally 
dismissed. Columns are used to ornament piers and 
walls, but an upholding pillar is not there ; the pier has 
entirely superseded it. The gigantic size of these piers 
drowns the arches, shuts out the air and light, prevents 
the eye from seeing marks of distance, and foreshortens 
the whole. This is the simple account of a non-artistic 



304 ITALY IN TRAI^SITION. 

eye ; and if any one choose to go from St. Peter's to 
three other basilicas — Santa Maria Maggiore, and St. 
Paul's, where the use of the pillar, in a long colonnade, 
produces a lengthening effect, and then St. John's Lat- 
eran, where the pier of St. Peter's is imitated, he will, 
perhaps, be incHned to think that the proportion between 
wall and open space has something to do in the matter. 

It was hard to believe my wife, that much of the 
brilliant surface of the interior was painted plaster. 
The impression of its being one various mass of mar- 
bles has so much to do with the effect, that at first you 
feel incredulous, then half angry. But so it is. The 
deception is perfect; pillars, angles, bases, and project- 
ing parts are real ; flat surfaces sometimes so, but often 
jDlaster. This statement was resented by some gentle- 
men at the table crhote^ as if it had been something said 
against their mothers ; and a lady, to whom the secret 
was disclosed in the Cathedral, rushing to the extreme 
of disappointment, cried, " Shabby place !" Even some 
Romans were unaware of the fact. Still, the interior 
remains a wonder of riches and beauty ; for a military 
pomp, such as that of Easter Sunday, an incomparable 
theatre ; and, as a repository of art, sufficient for months 
of study, though it suffers in value from the fly-away 
style of the statuary. 

On Holy Thursday we made for the Sistine Chapel 
in the Vatican: on the colonnaded and vaulted stair- 
case of marble which leads up to it stand Swiss guards 
in their harlequin red, yellow, and blue stripes, while 



EOME IK HOLY WEEK. 305 

red cardinals, purple prelates, velvet and silk courtiers, 
gay gentlemen, and richly-dressed ladies, crowd the 
steps in an upward stream. Helmets and halberds at 
the chapel door. Men standing; women seated on a 
side platform (by ticket) ; a vacant platform on the 
other side for the diplomatic circle, and another for 
"reigning families;" priests in frocks and robes of hues 
and materials numberless. Such is the sight in the 
Pope's own holy place of prayer ! The crowd steadily 
thickens. Ladies of note are ushered in by robed offi- 
cials. Every now and then, a steel box or coat of ar- 
mor, with the shoulders of a Swiss giant inside to work 
it, crunches its way through the crowd, forcing space 
for a cardinal or a dame. I never before saw the use 
of those steel boxes, but they are excellent instruments, 
when worked by good shoulders, for compelling prog- 
ress through a reluctant mass of human beings. This 
exercise was varied with chat in all European tongues, 
none of it reverent, all about the music, dresses, and 
shows of the week. 

Now come the great planets of diplomacy with their 
belts and satellites, wondrous to behold. Around them 
is a host of asteroids, each having its own orbit to shine 
in. What a galaxy of stars when all are put together ! 
Dear me ! in the dimmer sky of our northern realm it 
would take centuries to witness such conjunctions, 
transits, parallaxes, nutations, risings, settings, occulta- 
tions, eclipses, and revolutions. What a mighty influ- 
ence all these stars must exercise upon the destiny of 



306 ITALY rsr TEAjq^sinoi?". 

us poor mortals, who live down here, eighteen inches 
lower than the plane on which these are revolying. 
There is truth in astrology after all ! Some of my 
neighbors are trying to read their fortune in the beams 
of certain stars. One youth thinks that the grand con- 
stellation Goyon^ in comparison with which " Orion's 
studded belt was dim," had shot a ray of encourage- 
ment. He makes desperate efforts to reach the high 
sky ; but, just at the last moment, is pushed back 
among us terrestrials with a surly protest, "I know 
General Goyon." Perhaps so ; but the constellation 
shone on serenely in spite of his rebuff. 

The higher post for reigning families remained va- 
cant tm nearly the last, when a Russian archduchess 
and her brilliant suite appeared. 

By this time the pressure was terrible, the scuffles 
frequent and rough — worse than in a London crowd, 
and the principal talk was, "Well, I hope we are to 
have good music after all this." N'oav and then you 
did see a woman on her knees praying, looking round, 
and adjusting her veil or scarf all at the same time. 
One elderly lady, at the very front of the women's 
benches, seemed for some minutes in earnest and heart- 
broken prayer. 

Steel clattering in the cuirasses, steel shining in the 
helmets, steel held up aloft in the halberds, with sol- 
diers' plumes waving, and the deep buzz, ruzz, duzz of 
the crowd, were not sights and sounds of a very devo- 
tional kind. Xow another squeeze of the steel boxes. 



KOME I]Sr HOLY WEEK. 307 

and forward come a few of the Noble Guards Avith hel- 
met on, plume waving, and sioord draion. 

La ! sol ! fa ! the mass has begmi : out it strikes in 
different forms of song ; noAV low, now shrill, now roll- 
ing on in waves of music. The bass was a low hum in 
the crowd, and the soprano a wonderful man's voice, 
concerning which a thing was said in whispers not very- 
fit to hear in church, and not at all fit to write here. 

" ISTot equal to last night," says one. " There is only 
that voice worth much," says another ; and so on go the 
remarks ; the incense rises, the halberds flash, the crowd 
buzzes, and the gale of music hurries, slackens, rises, and 
dies away. 

I want to see the washing of the apostles' feet, and 

so Miss and I go down to St. Peter's, while the rest 

stay to witness the procession here. 

The scene is very curious ; soldiers in the porch, sol- 
diers in the nave, people walking, chatting, pointing, 
reading, buzz, buzz, buzz. Here and there a priest or 
friar on his knees. A large inclosure for ladies is guard- 
ed by gentlemen of the chamber. Here I place Miss 

, and then choose my position. It is in the right 

transept, near the end. Just before me is the Pope's 
throne, high and lifted up. The triple crown rests on 
the crossed keys, and lions hold on high the " banners 
of the Church," which are but flags of a prince. Upon 
a globe Providence is seated, with Justice on one side 
and Charity on the other. 

Gradually prelates in purple arrive through a side 



308 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

door, and spread themselves over the seats and steps in 
the neighborhood of the throne. 

Thirteen priests of diiferent nations are chosen to rep- 
resent the apostles. Why are they thirteen ? This is 
a deep question, and is settled by the help of a certain 
angel, who once appeared when St. Gregory was feed- 
ing twelve poor men. How it is proved that the angel's 
feet needed to be washed, I do not know. 

They come at last, marshaled by dignitaries in i^ur- 
ple, themselves in white caps, like those of dervishes, 
or, for non-traveled readers, like linen covers for Stilton 
cheeses ; white capes, white frocks, white trowsers, and 
shining white boots : a clean and quaint, but not grace- 
ful costume. 

As the men in rich robes arrange these white apos- 
tles on their bench, the people around me have their 
say. " That is an Oriental !" " That is an Armenian !" 
" Look at the third : what a villain he appears !" " Ay, 
but look at the fourth ; did you ever see such a perfect 
type of the hypocrite ?" '' That's a fine old fellow with 
the gray beard ;" this referred to one whom I could al- 
most have declared I knew, he looked so like some of 
the priests one meets in the Levant. " But oh, the fat 
one! See — see the fat apostle! In the middle, too! 
What a choice ! He's a Frenchman that ; not a very 
laborious apostle !" 

These things were said in Italian, French, and En- 
glish ; few in the latter tongue, and they the least se- 
vere. While thus the observers were remarking, the 



ROME lis: HOLY WEEK. 309 

apostles themselves were occupied with their petticoats, 
putting them right as anxiously as a barn-door beauty 
in the drawing-room oT a countess. While all but smil- 
ing at their innocent dressing, a fine old Belgian priest, 
whom I had two or three times spoken to, a handsome, 
honest-looking man, turned round to me, and, with a 
beam of delight on his face, said, " Oh, is it not an inter- 
esting sight ?" To him it Avas grand. 

The fat apostle put his hand into his pocket and pull- 
ed out a snuff-box. It was bran new, perhaps bought 
for the great occasion, j)erhaps presented by some of his 
flock. First he regaled his eyes with a long look at the 
bright new box. Then he regaled his nose. Then the 
eyes had their turn ; and betwixt nose and eyes no con- 
test arose ; both were treated ; and the whole person 
looked supremely content. The faithful, too, such as 
they were, Avere entertained. 

Some of the apostles seemed to try sincerely to settle 
their thoughts to a prayer ; but I doubt whether the 
best of them got on much better than William of Delo- 
raine would have done. It was too exciting for ordi- 
nary minds to set themselves steady. 

Presently, in a gallery directly opposite to the apos- 
tles, appeared embassadors of another type ; gentlemen 
whose hands, perhaps, might sometimes need to be 
washed, but who now shone in faultless decorations. 
"Thkt is our embassador with the red ribbon!" cries 
one. "Which is the Duke de Grammont?" asks an- 
other ; and so a fire of inquiries and recognitions is kept 
up till the cardinals begin to arrive. 



310 ITALY IX TKAXSmOX. 

Each has his three or four attendants, who proudly 
follow hun, some in purple, all in rich robes, he himself 
wearing scarlet and ermine. ""Which is that? and 
that ? and that ? and where is AntoneUi ?" was often 
asked. At last, " There he is !" I caught sight of a 
tall back disappearing between a stout mass of scarlet 
and a pillar. 

Finally, in came a rush of priests, with the Pope, clos- 
ing him round, beariog his train, and following him up 
the steps till he took his seat upon the throne. It was 
the first time I had seen Pio N'ono. He is a fine, a very 
fine old man — tall, portly, indeed fat, with a quick step 
and open visage, like an English country gentleman. 
The face beams with apjDarently true benignity, but the 
eye is not easy, and the smile of the hps is not unmixed 
with a disquiet something at the corners of the mouth. 
Still, he is a noble old man ; and, looking at him, one is 
much more inclined to foUow the common idea in En- 
gland that he is a very kind and siucere one, than the 
representation often (by no means always) given in 
Rome, namely, that he is faithless, unforgiving, and full 
of vainglory. Yet even they who say that give him 
credit for sincerity in matters of rehgion, and for disin- 
terestedness and purity of manners. 

He sits upon his throne. They ofier him a censer, 
into which he puts incense ; they take ofi* his mitre and 
put it on ; they chant, and cross, and bow ; read, and 
vrith reverence hold him up a book to kiss ; and take 
the censer, and wave the incense to this enthroned 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 311 

priest, in his royal robe of rose-color and gold. To 
him all eyes turn ; to him knees bow ; to him the in- 
cense rises. He sits ujoon his throne, with superhuman 
reverence given to him; and look at his countenance! 
Surely this is not a human being, fresh from putting ten 
millions of his fellow-men, ay, of his own neighbors and 
countrymen, outside of the kingdom of God ! "Where 
are the tears and traces of horror lying upon his soul in 
connection with this deed ? He smiles, and smiles, and 
smiles. 

Again, with knees bowed, the attendant dignitaries 
take off the rich rose-colored robe, and disclose a beau- 
tiful white dress. With fresh bowing of the knees, a 
white apron is girded round the white robe. Then the 
Pope, preceded and followed by dignitaries, hastens 
over to the apostles. Before him goes a cardinal, with 
a large golden ewer in his hand. Behind, an ecclesias- 
tic with a tray, containing napkins ; another with a tray 
of violets, and a third with a little set of papers. As 
his Holiness approaches, the apostles are agitated ; their 
faces change color ; their petticoats shake. The little 
white boot is slipped off the right foot, well washed as 
ever it was in its lifetime. The cardinal, from the gold- 
en ewer, pours upon the instep such a wee drop of wa- 
ter ; and then his Holiness, taking a napkin, gives the 
foot just a touch ; and that napkin falls to the apostle 
as a perpetual memory of the day of his honor. Then 
the head of the Pope bows down to the foot, and his 
lips touch the instep. 



312 ITALY IN TRANSITION, 

Here came in the only piece of real feeling I saw in 
the whole matter. Just as the Pope stooped to kiss 
the foot, several of the countenances, and notably that 
of the fat apostle, became suffused with emotion. Its 
meaning was plain enough : " What am I or my father's 
house, that my feet should be kissed by the Vicar of 
God!" 

The Romans often say that the Pope does not kiss 
the foot, but a bunch of violets which he lays upon it. 
This was not the case. Pio Nono really did the work ; 
he kissed the foot. This done, he turned round, took a 
bouquet of violets and handed it to the apostle, who, re- 
ceiving it, bowed, and with wonderful satisfaction kissed 
the back of the superhuman hand. Then his Holiness 
took up a little paper and handed it to the apostle, 
who again, with increasing veneration, kisses the hand. 
This little paper contains two medals, one gold and one 
silver. 

When I had seen the greater part of the ajDostles 
washed, I thought it would be well to go forward, and 
try to get a good place at the supper, which was to fol- 
low. Moving to the entrance of the ladies' platform, 
where I had left Miss , I waited for her. The gen- 
tleman in velvet and gold would let only one lady out 
at a time. They grew impatient. Down at the corner 
we waiting gentlemen saw a commotion gradually rise 
among the ladies. It grows hotter. Presently, Do we 
see rightly ? Is that a lady on the top of the rail which 
shuts them in ? Is that the light form of a fair girl 



KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 313 

which comes down upon the church floor with such a 
souse? And another, and another? jumper following 
jumper — is it possible ? Did not all England ring with 
amusement when something was said in the papers 
about ladies leaping over the barriers at one of the 
queen's. drawing-rooms? But that was a secular place 
and occasion : here we are in presence of the Pope, 
twelve apostles^ — ^^and one over— how many cardinals I 
don't know, and priests enough to man a ship of war ! 
We are directly under the dome at which all the Avorld 
wonders, and within a yard or two of the high altar of 
the high church of the so-called Catholic vf orld. Never 
mind, on they go, jump, jump, jump! A stout French- 
man, after a long look of astonishment, cried, " C^est line 
scandaleP And so it was a scandal. 

Going down the nave with a confused notion of these 
odd scenes, and of the alternating groups and costumes, 
I was suddenly arrested by a line of soldiers drawn 
diagonally across the church, "What! is the Pope not 
gone yet?" The reply was that he was changing robes 
in a side chapel. There stood the soldiers in double 
file, leaving a wide avenue bayonet-hedged. In a mo- 
ment passed the word of command, as on parade, 
" Ground arms !" Down went the butts of the mus- 
kets, clanging on the Cathedral floor. Then in another 
moment, " Present arms !" Up rose every piece. Then 
came a word I had never heard before, at which every 
soldier knelt. Now appears the poor old man, arrayed 
in other rich robes, blessing as he went with his two 

O 



314 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

fingers, smiling that constant smile, and seeming to feel 
neither shame nor sorrow that he was walking in the 
house of God amid rows of prostrate men and upheld 
bayonets. Behind the soldiers no one knelt. What a 
contrast to Florence, where the Prince of Carignano, 
before coming out to show himself to the people, waited 
till every bayonet was gone ! 

Now the rush was up a staii*case — one of those wind- 
ing ones which they have in Italy, on which you ascend 
by a rapid incHned plane without steps. Up we wound, 
and up, and across some rooms, till at last out of the 
grand Sala Regia, on which abut the Sistine and Pauline 
chapels, we floated in a current of crinoline into a long 
and lofty hall. Priests and soldiers, soldiers and priests ; 
ladies and prelates, prelates and ladies ; buzz in Italian, 
buzz in French, buzz in English, buzz in Spanish ; and 
crush and push, question and joke, laugh and elbow- 
thrust: such is the scene. Here, on the right, are 
raised seats for ladies ; in the middle, the floor for gen- 
tlemen ; and on the left, an elevated table, at which are 
seated the thirteen apostles, all on one side. 

It is a resplendent table. Before each apostle is a 
statuette of gilded bronze, representing an apostle whom 
he too represents ; and surely between them they ought 
to give the faithful some idea of the original. But, so 
far as I know, just at that moment the faithful, repre- 
sented by the company present, are thinking of the 
originals as much as they would do at a Crystal Palace 
flower-show, a lord-mayor's feast, a royal ball, or a re- 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 315 

view. But these pretty statuettes are not common 
images. They once adorned the holy house of Loretto ; 
that is, the identical dwelling of Mary, the maid of Naz- 
areth, which, having stood till the days of the Moham- 
medans, was about to be defiled by them, when the an- 
gels took it up, and, just as the Hindoo god Hanuman 
did with the Himalayas, carried it bodily through the 
air and planted it in Dalmatia. Here it was again in 
peril, and its celestial keepers, lifting it once more just 
over the Adriatic, lodged it safely in a grove of laurels. 
Enormous wealth was massed up in this shrine. But 
when the legions of Bonaparte reached the angel-fenced 
abode, they found that Pius VI. had thought it best to 
leave nothing to the charge of celestial guards, but the 
old wood image of the Virgin ; probably supposing 
that they were not accustomed to defend, as scrupu- 
lously as would be done at Rome, jewels, gold, silver, 
pearls, and costly robes.- Even the holy image, howev- 
er, proved too earthly a treasure for them to guard. 
It was carried off by the sans-culottes soldiers, and for 
some years was a museum curiosity in Paris among oth- 
er images. 

The table is covered with gilded vessels and beauti- 
ful flowers. Before it stands the Pope, surrounded by 
his retinue. A bishop is reading, and might as well be 
whistling for any thing that can be heard; but they are 
used to that. Then come thirteen bishoiDS robed, each 
bearing a bowl of soup. The first, approaching the 
Pope, kneels down, and his soup is blessed by the pon- 



316 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

tifical hand. It is then placed before St, Peter. The 
second bishop kneels likewise — gets his soup blessed — 
and he places it before St. Andrew. So on till the thir- 
teen are served. Then come thirteen prelates succeed- 
ing to the bishops ; they bear dishes — they kneel before 
the source of blessings — get the benediction on each 
separate dish, and lay them before the apostles. Then 
come the bishops again, then the prelates, till each has 
borne six dishes, making twelve in all, for each apostle ; 
and every dish has its separate benediction ! The Pope 
pours out wine and water for the apostles, and finally 
takes his leave. The apostles eat very well, drink their 
wine in comfort; but presently you see going on a 
process of gathering the "leavings" into baskets or 
bags under the table. The wine, however, is all carried 
away in living bottles ; and, for a closing scene, the 
apostles take to pocketing the dessert. Where do the 
pockets lie ? I could not make out. But it is not a 
magnificent conclusion for so wonderful a festival. 

Then, the rush for the flowers ! One gets a bunch, 
another a sprig, another a leaf; and the ladies press for 
them, and the prelates are polite, almost gallant; and 
every body is merry, and altogether it is as unlike a se- 
rious afiair of any sort as you can imagine. But I 
saw nothing to justify some accounts, that when the 
flowers come to be scrambled for, matters between the 
ladies and the prelates reach a point of extreme famil- 
iarity. 

That afternoon I went into a shop, and got into chat 



EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 317 

with the stout old woman who ruled over it. " Have 
you been to St. Peter's this morning ?" she asked. 

" Yes ; have you ?" 

" Oh no, we Romans do not think of going to those 
ceremonies; they are for foreigners. You like them. 
Were you not greatly pleased ?" 

" Well, as an exhibition — a show — it was very daz- 
zling." 

She looked puzzled, and said, "It is, I suppose, to 
teach us humility, that the Pope washes the apostles' 
feet." 

" How does it teach humility ?" 

" Well, they say it is to teach it." 

" They say so ; but how can it teach humility for one 
man to come and set himself on a throne in the house 
of God, and make other men kneel down to him, and 
wave censers to him ; and then, preceded by men in 
purple, followed by men in purple, himself in the rich- 
est robes, to have water poured by a splendid dignitary 
out of a golden vessel, in mockery, on a clean foot, 
which he touches with a napkin, and with his lips, while 
thousands look on ? Is there a priest in the wide world 
so proud that he would not rejoice to enact the Pope's 
part in this exhibition ? Is there a true Christian upon 
earth who would make such a display in doing a good 
deed?" 

The old lady looked as if this half pleased, half per- 
plexed her : " But did not our Savior do so ?" 

"Our Savior do so! He did wash His disciples' 



318 ITALY IN TEAlTSinON. 

feet, but how differently ! They were twelve poor men, 
with weary, dusty feet, and in a secret, obscure cham- 
ber ; and He, their Lord and Master, in good earnest 
washed their dirty feet, without a crowd to look on, or 
a court to attend Him. That taught us secret service 
to the real needs of our inferiors. What I saw to-day 
teaches pompous display of fictitious goodness." 

" Agostina! Agostina!" cried out the old woman to 
her daughter, who was in the back shop, " Agostina ! 
come here, and listen to this signer! He says that 
what our Lord did was not the same at all as what the 
Pope does, but as different as can be. Listen !" 

Agostina looked with the most intent look that black 
Roman eyes can shoot, and kept it up while I repeated, 
and enlarged, and explained, and told of the real ways 
of Christ and His apostles, and of the Gospel, in which 
it is all written, and should be read. She did nothing 
but look ; but the old woman put in a word and a ques- 
tion now and then, and helped me on. 

How different was that silent, searching Roman Agos- 
tina from the shop-women of Turin, whose thoughts 
were spoken as freely as those of- English boys or girls 
would be in a friendly party ! Was it whoUy the dif- 
ference made by Uberty and repression, or partly that 
and partly nature ? 

We took a drive to the Protestant burial-ground, and 
had a very shrewd coachman, beside whom I sat for the 
sake of talk. He was astonished at my knowledge of 
the remains of old Rome, and my seeming ignorance of 



KOME IK HOLY WEEK. 319 

every thing connected with its living men and things. 
He heard me talk of the ceremonies, and at first took 
me for an English Catholic. I could not get a word 
out of him, in praise of Pope or priest, beyond this, that 
the Pope himself was a worthy man. He gladly pass- 
ed from all such topics to talk of the different objects 
we passed. 

There it was at last, that quiet spot inside the old 
lonely wall, far outside the modern Rome, beyond all 
the remains even of the seven hills. Close by it is a 
landmark, by which any English eye may find it from 
the Capitol, or from the railway, as you enter Rome. 
There is a little pyramid, considerable enough to be 
marked far away. It is the tomb of some ancient no- 
body, called Caius Cestus, who bequeathed a pyramid 
to posterity, having, perhaps, nothing else to bequeath. 
Beside it lie the remains of many a young English man 
and woman, who, amid the pleasures of Rome, have 
suddenly fallen by fever ; of many whose lengthened 
age has slowly worn away in this balmy air. Oh, how 
balmy it is to-day ! As the gate opens, the western sun 
pours a flood of orange light among the dark cypresses, 
and on the flower-knots which bloom over many a form 
forever faded. A more peaceful spot in which to sit 
by the grave of a friend it would be hard to find. Yet 
much of this impression is due to that afternoon sun 
and this pure overhanging sky. When I first visited it 
some years before, it was a dull, I think a rainy day, 
and my impressions were not so cheerful. 



320 ITALY IN TRANSITIOISr. 

We find out one grave, and from it pick a few flow- 
ers. There rests a young English lady, whose widow- 
ed mother left her here in sorrow and in hope. The 
names she bore are of note among us. As the widow 
laid her child down, to leave her far from her own 
probable resting-place, she felt as if she would fain 
write on the tomb a few Bible words of hope: "Bless- 
ed are the dead which die in the Lord." But the poor 
girl had died a Protestant, though in Rome, and in that 
day toleration had not reached so far as to allow such 
an expression of hope to be put up, even in a foreign 
language, and in an out-of-the-way spot, over a heretic ! 
So all the widow could obtain permission for was, 
"This stone is erected by her sorrowing yet rejoicing 
mother." This was in 1852. 

Either the government has since grown more in- 
dulgent, or Americans are favored above the English ; 
for on one or two American graves of more recent date 
words from the Bible are to be read, plainly declaring 
the hope of survivors that the spirit of the departed is 
at rest. 

After a refreshing visit to this scene of peace, among 
tombs and flowers, tokens of human decay, and pledges 
of Divine indulgence— after a moment over the graves 
of Shelley, and Keats, and Bell, the naturalist, and 
thoughts of the poverty of man without something 
more than goods or talents, and the blessedness of man 
when earth is but what the sea is to the sailor, a rest- 
less but sublime path to an unseen haven — after linger- 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 821 

ing and lingering again, at last we were on our way 
back, and I was beside my friend the coachman. 

He was much more open. He had found us out; 
we were Protestant English, and he talked away. I 
began, as usual, seeking information about the different 
churches, friars, and nuns we happened to see. 

"What is the difference between these Capuchins 
and the Camaldolesi ?" 

He laughed : " Yes, and the Gregorians, and the Do- 
minicans, and the — " running on with a string of names. 

" Well, what is the difference between the one and 
the other ?" 

" Oh, each has his own religion. They are all of dif- 
ferent religions.* Each order follows its religion in its 
own way, according to the life of its founder, and the 
statutes left by him." 

" What do they do ?" 

His eye flashed ; but he checked himself. " Oh, they 
have their different observances to attend to — all sorts 
of ceremonies, and so on ; and they have to forget their 
friends, and lose their natural affections, and keep on in 
the ways of the convent. Ay, we have some who have 
not seen a relation for forty years, and never inquire 
after them or care for them ; and they call that re- 
ligion ! We have some who are called ' Buried Alive :' 
they are shut up from every human sight or engage- 
ment. JEcco^ that's the kind of thing they like." 

* The expression about ** different religions" I heard frequently 
from the common people in describing the orders. 

02 



322 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

"Among the different orders are there some married 
and some not ?" 

" Married ! No ; not one priest in Rome. No, no ; 
but they do not need to be married — " 

" Who is holiest, priest or friar ?" 

" Oh, for that, holiest ! well, I suppose the friar ; he is 
most shut off from the world. He lives for the convent 
and in it. But, holy as they are, they get every thing 
into their hands— every thing, signor !" he cried, giving 
the horse a cut, and pitching his voice higher; "they 
grasp at all we have. Here families have no chance 
against them. If a man has any property, he must look 
out and die unexpectedly, or he will have to leave half 
to the Jesuits. Look at that palace," pointing to a 
great block of houses on the right : " that belongs to 
such an order. Look at that one," pointing to another : 
"that belongs to such an order. Oh, enough! they 
swarm by thousands, and they have all employments in 
their hands or gift, and all good things are gulped up 
by them." 

" By thousands ?" I said, quite innocently. 

" Yes, I believe, tens of thousands." 

"And what do they all do ?" 

" Do ! do ! what do they do ? Signor, they eat and 
drink, and that on the shoulders of the poor." 

Then came a dark look, that Italian dagger-look 
which makes one shrink ; and, striking the footboard 
with the butt end of his whip, he said, in a tone I shall 
not easily forget, 



ROME IK HOLY WEEK. 323 

^^ Signer^ this is a state where they that idle eat^ and 
they that labor starved 

Poor fellow! ready made to the hand of an incen- 
diary for any cutthroat work ! I tried to tell him how 
they must not charge all this on religion ; how holy and 
beautiful was the Church as Christ instituted it, and as 
His apostles left it ; how well it was described in the 
VangelOj the Gospel-book; and how equal rights and 
civil order flourished in countries where that book was 
in the homes of the poor, and inspired the laws of the 
ruler. I tried to cool his wrath by saying that among 
the priests were many good ones, which he admitted at 
once ; and, above all, told him how they and we alike, 
each with his own faults on his head, might find mercy 
at the throne of grace. He seemed to think me rather 
milk and water for not hating the priests more. 

That evening I had the opportunity of talking over 
matters with men of a very difierent stamp. Referring 
to one of the coachman's points, I said, " It can not be 
true that the priests generally will take advantage of 
a dying man to divert their property from his rightful 
heirs." 

" True !" exclaimed one ; " of course it is true." 

" One finds it hard to believe that men would so des- 
ecrate a death-bed, and pervert their own official influ- 
ence. In individual cases, of course, we know it is done 
— ^but generally ?" 

" Those doubts are fine ! they are thoroughly En- 
glish ! You find it hard to believe in such villainy ; we 



324 ITALY IN THANSITION. 

find it hard to believe in honest men, especially if they 
have any garb of religion. No, signor, no ! families 
have no chance here. Old, princely famihes, allied to 
the court, whom it suits it to keep up, yes ; but ordinary 
families, no. If a man has made any money, the Jesu- 
its, by some means, will secure the half. Suppose he 
has made it in business, they get at him perhaps thus : 
'You can not have gained all this without wronging 
many, knowingly or unknowingly. If you die without 
making restitution, your soul will be lost. To find out 
all the individuals from whom you have unjustly gained 
would be impossible ; therefore your only way of mak- 
ing restitution is by leaving it to the Church !' If that 
fails, they will find out another plan." 

The question as to acts of violence coming under dis- 
cussion, I found that the chief difierence between the 
reports of cultivated men and those of the rough and 
poor lay in the tone in which they were made. Some 
of the statements in M.About's book as to the indul- 
gence shown to assassins are so revolting to our minds 
as to produce scarcely any other effect than disgust with 
the writer. But at Piacenza first, among the rough but 
intelligent men of business in the dining-ropm, tales re- 
specting papal rule, gushing hot from living lips, and re- 
ceived without a hint of improbability by a large circle 
of Italians, made me feel that the dreadful fact of an ad- 
ministration which played lightly with human life was 
familiar to those before me. In Bologna this was made 
more and more manifest. The scraps of talk one had 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 325 

in crossing the Apennines all ran in the same direction. 
In Tuscany, where papal rule had not existed, the change 
in this respect was obvious : " assassination" was a word 
seldom heard. At Rome, again, the talk of blood seem- 
ed as natural as in the Romagna, or nearly so. The dif- 
ference reminded me of that between Americans from 
the free and those from the slave states : in the one case 
you hear of topics common to civilized countries ; in the 
other, a string of animated stories will certainly cause 
mention of weapons, wounds, and deaths. 

Asking an Englishman who knows Rome as we know 
our own corners of London whether such an idea as 
About gave was not exaggerated, he said, " I wish I 
could say it was ; but when one has been here so long 
as I, there is something horrible in the familiarity we 
acquire with such news as that a few men have come 
by their death. Before the failure of the wine-crop, it 
was an ordinary thing on a Sunday night, or that of a 
great holy day, to hear of ten or eleven men being stab- 
bed in and about the Piazza Barberini alone. Since the- 
wine failed there is less fighting, and consequently few- 
er assassinations." . Still, this was the statement of a 
foreigner, though of one any thing but disposed to ex- 
aggerate. In a beautiful hill district, amid rich vine- 
yards and quaint villages, inquiring from a medical 
gentleman as to the amount of disease in that ap- 
parently healthy spot, he said that there was compara- 
tively little for doctors to do, and much less now since 
the wine had become scarce ; for before that, on every 



326 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

holy day, they counted on having a few cases of stab- 
bing. 

One of the most terrible symptoms is that nothing is 
said about it. In England our papers teem with ac- 
counts respecting a single murder, and it is repeated for 
months : fii'st, when it occurs ; next, when the inquest 
sits ; then, when the Assizes come ; and, finally, when 
the execution takes place, the attention of thirty mil- 
lions of people is directed to the tragedy. But in the 
Roman States it is no tragedy ; it is an accident. Noth- 
ing is said about it. The violent death of half a dozen 
would cause a sensation only in the neighborhood where 
it occurred. In a set of prints, bought in any shop in 
Rome, representing the manners and customs of the 
people, one of women tearing ofi* each other's hair, and 
another of men fighting with daggers and muskets, 
come in as naturally as a shillelah scuffle would in pic- 
tures of Ireland. 

The connection between the failure of the vine and 
the decrease of violence is a fact worth noting. The 
wines of South Italy are fiery, as is the case wherever 
the grape grows on volcanic soil. When one says 
fiery, of course it means as compared with wine, not 
with the strong drinks used in England under the names 
of " Port" and " Sherry." It would seem that the ex- 
citing wines of Rome have the double tendency which 
may be marked every where in contrast with that of 
mild wines. The latter do not produce a diseased ap- 
petite, and do not urge to acts of violence. In proper- 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 327 

tion as the strengtli of drinks increases, so does their 
tendency to raise a morbid craving ; but, so far as I 
have seen the civiUzed world, we are the only nation 
into the social usages of which drinking apart from eat- 
ing, and as a thing for its own sake, is fairly established 
at the family table. True, the after-dinner hour is now 
a very different institution from what it once was ; but 
it continues an hour for Englishmen to devote to wine, 
after having taken enough with dinner, which when oth- 
er people do, they are satisfied. One cause is the differ- 
ent strength of the potations : a light wine taken with 
food excites no thirst for more ; a strong drink likes to 
be taken, for its own sake. 

On Good Friday I expected to find all Rome deliver- 
ed up to a holy and solemn day ; but shops were open, 
flower-stalls in bloom — and what flower-stalls ! — ofiices 
busy, studios occupied, wagons rolling, markets full of 
picturesque groups, chaffing with a will, and the pork- 
butchers in great activity, preparing for the coming tide ' 
of custom when the embargo of Lent comes off. At 
breakfast a beefsteak appeared on the table quite natu- 
rally, as if it was offering no defiance to such great pow- 
ers as Pope or cardinal, and at the tahle d'^hbte no man 
could have told it was Good Friday any where, espe- 
cially in Rome. Meats of all kinds were served com- 
fortably, and either all present were Protestants, or act- 
ed as if they were. 

The only ceremony of the day to which one need re- 



328 ITALY IlSr TRANSITION. 

fer is that of Tenebrce^ or " the Shades," as celebrated 
on Good Friday evening at St. Peter's. It is not in the 
great church, but in a side chapel, closed up to the time 
of beginning. 

We expected a multitude. A few dozen peoj^le were 
about, some closing round the gate of the chapel, and 
others sauntering in the church. Before the service 
began they had increased to a few dozen more. There 
was a great rush for a small number, and then it proved 
that the seats were few. 

Before the altar was a kind of candelabrum, with a 
triangular form, set round with candles the color of 
palm oil, fifteen in number, and one standing on the 
apex. There were a couple of score of canons, minor 
and major, with at least one cardinal. A priest (I do 
not like to call him master of the ceremonies, but I find 
that term used by Monsignor Baggs, in his book on 
Holy Week) waited by the lectern. Now the Chapter 
sang in chorus ; now the choir came in ; and of all music 
I have heard, nothing ever left such an impression of a 
vocal prodigy on my mind as the soprano of one man 
among the singers. It was a quality of voice which 
filled one with amazement, and every additional note 
but increased the eagerness to listen. Now and then 
the canons came to the lectern with great pomp of aj)- 
proach and return. As it came to the turn of each, the 
master of the ceremonies approached the side on which 
the next reader sat, and made a profound bow. The 
canon left his seat, walked to the lectern, followed by 



EOME IN^ HOLY WEEK. 329 

the waiting-man, who lent him his hand to help him to 
bow his knee, and altogether waited on him as if he 
were a lady or an invalid. The short Psalm was in- 
toned, and sometimes one could catch a word, but very 
rarely. The great man and little man bowed to one 
another ; then the great man walked to his seat, and the 
little followed to the edge of the canons' benches, where 
he waited till the great man had reached his place, when 
he bowed, and was bowed to again. If I had counted 
the bows, and the times this was repeated, my readers 
would hardly believe me. Some of the canons, while 
before the book, and fresh from bowing to the altar, 
spat upon the marble floor as comfortably as a mem- 
ber of the " House" would do in Washington. Some 
of them would draw out a thick cotton pocket-handker- 
chief, of strong colors, and, rolling it up into the shape 
of a mower's whetstone, would draw it from end to end 
across the upper lip, and then draw it back again. 

After each Psalm a candle was extinguished, and thus 
the original fifteen grew less and less. When only the 
topmost remained, it was carried behind the altar, and 
hidden there for a while, and then brought out burning. 
To uninitiated people, one disadvantage of teaching by 
pantomime is that they see things which do not explain 
themselves, much less any thing else, whereas teaching 
by language at least aims at doing both. 

What is all this bowing, marching, and quenching of 
browny-yellow candles about ? Here is the answer fur- 
nished by Monsignor Baggs : 



830 ITALY IN TEAKSITION. 

" Lamps and candelabra were presented to the sanc- 
tuary by the faithful duruig the first ages of persecu- 
tion; and in more tranquil times to the basilicas by 
Constantine and others who erected or dedicated them. 
They were lighted, as St. Jerome observes, in the day- 
time, 'not to drive away darkness, but as a sign of joy;' 
and therefore the custom of gradually extinguishing 
them at the office of Tenebrse we may justly consider 
with Amalarius as a sign of mourning, or of the sym- 
pathy of the Church with her divine and suffering 
Spouse, The precise number of lights is determined 
by that of the psalms, which is the same as at ordinary 
matins of three nocturns. 

" The custom of concealing behind the altar during 
the last part of the office the last and most elevated 
candle, and of bringing it forward burning at the end 
of the service, is a manifest allusion to the death and 
resurrection of Christ, whose light, as Micrologus ob- 
serves, is represented by our burning tapers. ' I am 
the light of the world.' (John viii., 12.) In the same 
manner, the other candles extinguished one after anoth- 
er may represent the prophets successively put to death 
before their divine Lord; and if we consider that the 
Psalms of the Old Testament are recited at the time, 
this explanation may appear more satisfactory than oth- 
ers, which would refer them to the blessed Virgin, the 
apostles, and disciples of Christ. In the triangular 
form of the candlestick is contained an evident allusion 
to the B. Trinity. This candlestick is mentioned in a 



ROME IN HOLT WEEK. 331 

MS. Ordo of the seventh century, published by Ma- 
billon."* 

Another writer, with a name English people are fond 
of, Mr. C. J. Hemans, gives the following : 

" After the extinction of the lights, when the strains 
of the Penitential Psalm commence, the effect of the 
architecture of such a temple, only the more salient de- 
tails being discernible in the shadowy obscurity of the 
hour, greatly contributes to prepare the mind for sol- 
emn and rehgious impressions. The effect of stupen- 
dous vastness is strengthened rather than weakened in 
this wonderful architecture by the twilight gloom. 
The deep toll of the bell, which breaks upon the silence 
after the chanted service has ceased, announcing the ex- 
position from the balcony under the cupola of the three 
relics (the cross, the lance, and VbUo Santo) ^ dimly dis- 
tinguished by the taper light reflected on the gold and 
crystal they are shrined in, has a startling echo through 
those majestic aisles; and the exposition itself forms a 
remarkably picturesque accessory to the mystic solem- 
nity of the scene. 

" At the close of the office of Tenebrse a harsh abrupt 
noise is made by the assistants, which is said to allude 
to the convulsion of Nature at the hour the Redeemer 
expired."f 

A boom of the great bell announces some coming 

* <*The Ceremonies of the Holy Week at Rome. By the Right 
Rev. Monsignor Baggs, Bishop of Pella," p. 43, 44. 

t «' Lent and the Holy Week in Rome. By C. J. Hemans," p. 125. 



332 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

event, and a stir of the people follows. All now turn 
into ttie nave. There a procession of dignitaries makes 
its appearance. The usual hedge of bayonets is plant- 
ed to keep the way of the Holy Father. He comes, and 
down fall the poor guards ; while the old man's two 
fingers move, blessing the bent heads and the erect 
bayonets, and still that smile beams on. I can not be- 
lieve that it is, as so many of the people say, assumed, 
and now set in the muscles ; for, apart from it, kindness 
and good- will appear to dwell in the face. 

Hush ! he to whom they kneel down in God's house 
has himself found something to kneel to. What is 
this ? At the ceremony yesterday he sat on a throne, 
had knees bent to him, and incense offered to him ; but, 
from all the eye could see, there was no being in that 
house so high as he. Doubtless, had any one been able 
to hear and understand the words said and sung, they 
would have found allusions to Another and a Higher. 
But we heard voices, not words ; music, not wisdom. 
The ear was for pleasure, the eye only for lessons ; and 
it reported that the enthroned, incensed one to whom 
they knelt kiiew of no Lord and King. 

But now he bows down on the church floor, and lo, 
up start at that sight all the soldiers from their knees ! 
What does this mean ? I do not know what Rome in- 
tends to teach by it. It is, however, a great lesson to 
the eye ; and it only says. Men kneel to thee ; but when 
thou dost kneel to any higher power, it is for men to 
look on at the spectacle. 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 333 

And what is it before which he kneels ? A little 
balcony high up, some thirty yards or so, on the left of 
the great altar, is marked, in the general gloom now 
prevailing, by lights, and the robed forms of a few can- 
ons. They hold np something in their hands three 
times in succession. In each case it seems to shine, as 
if jewels, or glass, or gold reflected the taper light. 
Are they pictures, caskets, amulets, or framed docu- 
ments ? They may be any or all of these ; your eye 
has no good account to give. 

"What are those things the priests are holding up, 
as if they meant us to look at them ?" 

" Those, signer, are the most holy relics." 

" And what is the Pope doing ?" 

" The Holy Father is adoring the most holy relics." 

" And, pray, what may the relics be ?" 

" There is the most holy cross, the sacred spear, and 
the most holy visage." 

These are word for word the answers given by my 
next neighbor. 

While the canons were holding tip these three ob- 
jects, the Pope remained kneeling, as also the cardinals 
and dignitaries behind him ; the soldiers stood, and the 
spectators, except a few here and there. 

As to the genuineness of these relics I will say noth- 
ing. Any reader may find all Rome can say to support 
the tradition. The cross and spear (all know the tale) 
were found by Helen in Jerusalem ; and the true cross 
was distinguished from those of the thieves by its wood 



334 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

curing a dying woman according to some authorities, a 
dead man according to others. 

The spear was given to Pope Innocent VIII. by Baja- 
zet the Sultan. 

As for the visage, it is an imprint of the countenance 
of Christ, made in the hours of His agony upon a hand- 
kerchief wherewith he was then wiped by St. Veronica, 
whose statue is just under the balcony from which this 
"most holy" relic is displayed. What Monsignor Baggs 
says as to the " evidence in favor of the rehc" is this : 

" As for the Vblto Sa7ito^ or image of our Savior, it 
was placed in an oratory of the Vatican Basilica by 
John VII. as long ago as 707, as may be seen in Marti- 
neiii^ Dei 2^^egu della Basilica Vat, "Who St. Veron- 
ica or Berenice was, who is said to have wiped our 
Savior's face with the handkerchief, is another question, 
as Benedict XIV. observes, to whom and to Martinetti 
I shall content myself with referring. It appears that 
this ancient likeness of our Savior was afterward kept 
at St. Spirito ; six Roman noblemen had the care of it ; 
and to each of them was confided one of the six keys 
with which it was locked up. They enjoyed various 
privileges ; and, among others, says an ancient MS. 
Chronicle quoted by CanceUieri, 'Aa^?6^a720 questi sei 
og7ii anno^ da Santo Spirito^ due vacche in die S, Spir- 
itus le quali se magnavano li con gran festal In 1410 
the Yolto Santo was carried back to St, Peter's, where 
it has ever since remained."* 

* Baggs, p. 88. 



EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 335 

And on this evidence we are to fall doAvn upon our 
knees before a cloth ! On such grounds the whole 
pomp of Rome is brought out to teach the world to 
worship relics ! Things in India are sometimes obscene 
and coarse, and in those respects not to be compared 
with any thing that even Rome ventures to graft on 
Christianity; but as an elaborate attempt, on the part 
of the great, to teach superstition to the low, this cere^ 
mony of " adoring the major relics" seemed to surpass 
all I had ever seen. 

Four men, who loved Christ with a love stronger 
than death, wrote His life, but left no hint of his height, 
complexion, featm^es, or any one point that could help 
the mind to a personal image. Others wrote long 
Epistles, of which he was the Alpha and Omega ; but 
His form is as much kept out of view as the body of 
Moses, hidden by the Almighty in an undiscovered 
grave. The Christian tombs and relics of the first cen- 
turies show no attempt to make an image of Christ. 
Too deep a sense of the Divine rested upon the early 
Church to permit of any attempt to paint the human, as 
it appeared in Him. 

That evening the long-talked-of excommunication was 
put into my hands. It had been posted up in the pub- 
he places at Rome, notably on the doors of the Lateran 
Basilica, famous for many such an act. It Avas now 
printed in a pamphlet form for the benefit of the public. 
It read much more like a political manifesto than an act 



336 KOISIE IN TRANSITION. 

of a high-priest ; and the mixture of Divine and politic- 
al subjects, of earthly designs and heavenly claims, is, 
to minds trained as ours, almost incomprehensible. It 
not only pronounces the sentence of the greater excom- 
munication, which is an entire cutting off from the com- 
munion of Christ's body, and, in the view of Rome, spir- 
itually the same thing as a sentence of outlawry is civil- 
ly, with this one exception, that the person may repent ; 
but, in addition to this, it lays the excommunicated per- 
sons under all the penalties of the canon law ; and no 
wonder that the " Opinione!'^ of Turin should ask, 
" What would you say of a judge who, after having 
condemned eleven millions of Italians at a stroke to the 
loss of all civil and political rights, that is, to civil death, 
should then declare them subject to all the other penal- 
ties of the criminal code ? There would be nothing for 
it but to hang him offhand. It is evident, then, that 
beyond the excommunication, which, in the opinion of 
Rome, brings spiritual death, nothing remains but the 
penalty of the stake — a penalty, in fact, sanctioned in 
the canons of the Inquisition against those who, within 
a year after the date of the excommunication, shall not 
give sign of perfect repentance. To this capital execu- 
tion, in the technology of the holy Inquisition, the name 
oiauto dafe is given ; and while the rebels are burning 
and roasting, the Dominican fathers should be devoutly 
present, reciting the most holy rosary."* And yet some 
amiable members of our House of Commons had the 

* VOpinione, April 19th, 1860. 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 337 

hardihood to say, in the presence of the British public, 
that the excommunication is not a curse ! The laying 
on of all the penalties ever devised by Rome against 
the souls and bodies of men, no curse! Seeing me ex- 
amining this document, a Roman gentleman asked, 

" What, have you got that ?" 

" Yes ; have you not seen it ?" 

"No." 

"How is that?" 

" I did not know that it was separately printed, and 
I have only seen it posted at the public places. Of 
course I would not venture to read it there, because I 
know very well it would not be possible to do so with- 
out having the eyes of two or three spies upon me ; 
and, while reading it, I might lift my brows, or pout 
my lips, or say ' Pshaw !' or I might even forget myself 
so far as to exclaim, ' That is a lie !' and then, poor me !" 
I happened, at that moment, to be reading the part of 
the document in which complaint was made against the 
Sardinian government for taking away the Romagna 
by bribery and intimidation, representing the majority 
of the people as happy subjects of a beloved sovereign. 
" Oh, what lies !" said the Roman, " what lies !" 

" You don't venture to say so ?" 

" Say so? of course I do. Those things are not writ- 
ten for us ; they are written for people far away." 

A day or two after, in a railway carriage coming from 
Frascati, a young priest had this document in his hand. 
A layman saw it, and begged for one look. He handed 

P 



338 ITALY IX TRAIfSITlON. 

it back in silence. Another layman beside the priest 
put some questions, and he began to declaim against 
those who had robbed the Church. After a while I 
ventured to say, "May a foreigner ask you what is 
meant by ' the greater excommunication ?' " 

" Oh," he said, " that means that no one in the world 
has authority to take it off but the Pope himself, or to 
restore the excommunicate persons to the Church ; and 
also, under the minor excommunication, a person is not 
forbidden intercourse with other Christians, whereas un- 
der the major he is." 

" Then he is entii*ely outside the kingdom of grace ?" 

"Just so." 

"And if he die in that state?" 

"Ah!" 

"Against how many people is this directed?" 

"Against all who have had any hand, act, or part in 
robbing the Church or encouraging the robbery." 

"All those are to be excluded from every office of 
the Church?" 

" Certainly." 

" Then, of course, the churches all over the Romagna 
and Piedmont will be closed ?" 

" Well, you see no individual is named." 

" Oh, they are all meant, but nobody named ; and 
how then will it be apphed ?" 

"Every one whose conscience tells him that he has 
had a part in the jnatter will apply it to himself. It is 
more a matter of conscience." 



EOME m HOLY WEEK. 339 

By this time he was getting rather weary, and I said, 
" You will pardon me for asking ; but you know that 
we are not much accustomed to public cursing." The 
laymen had been listening with intense curiosity, and 
now one of them struck in. 

" You are from England ?" 

"Yes." 

"A Catholic?" 

"Yes." 

At this he looked disappointed. I said, "I am a 
Catholic, but not a Roman;" and then gave him my 
views of the difference between the two. 

" But," said the priest, " it is impossible to be a Cath- 
olic without being a Roman. St. Peter founded the 
Roman Church, and his successors are Peter, and apart 
from Peter there can be no union with the Church. 
* Strengthen thy brethren,' were our Lord's words to 
him. He was the prince of the apostles and the head 
of the Church in his life ; his successors continued to be 
so, and there is but the one holy Roman Catholic apos- 
tolic Church." 

" St. Peter founded the Church of Rome ? Where 
have we the account of that ?" 

" In the New Testament." 

"In what book?" 

"The Acts of the Apostles." 

" I do not remember that. I do remember that St. 
Paul is mentioned as having come to Rome." 

" Oh yes, St. Paul too — they were joint founders of 
the Church in Rome." 



340 ITALY i:5>r TRANsmoi?^. 

" But are you sure that the account of St. Peter hav- 
ing come to Rome and founded the Church here is in 
the Acts of the Apostles ?" 

" Certainly." 

" I rather think not." 

" Of course it is," getting rather warm. 

"Have you a New Testament about you?" 

" No," he said. 

" Well, permit me to say that in the New Testament 
there is not one single word on the subject of St. Peter 
ever having been at Rome ; that in the Acts of the 
Apostles no hint is given of any thing of the kind." 

" Oh, perhaps not," he said, evidently feeling that my 
tones were those of one who knew what he said ; '' but 
the Almighty has not thought it necessary to put every 
thing into the Scriptures." 

The look given by the laymen at this passage made 
me begin to fear for the forbearance of my friend ; but 
he at once put on a high tone, and gave me a real lec- 
ture on the value and glory of belonging to the true 
Church. There was such a decided air of authority, 
that all I ventured to say at the close was, " Well, I be- 
lieve in the Christian faith — in the old faith of the early 
Church. The New Testament gives you my faith; 
and, so far as human words can express it, it is very 
well set forth in the Apostles' Creed." 

Here he kindled anew. " But," he said, " God does 
not allow every one to draw his faith out of the Scrip- 
tures for himself. He has pro^aded otherwise than 



KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 341 

that. He has given the authority to Peter, when he 
said to him, ' Strengthen thy brethren ;' and Peter, upon 
whom has devolved this authority, must execute it to 
all time. ' Strengthen thy brethren.' " And he went 
on to argue, as if this comforting word to poor Peter, 
"When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," 
was a charter for him to take, for all time, the body, 
soul, and spirit of every Christian, and rule them at his 
will. 

" Yes," he said ; " I, as an individual, am not to fol- 
low my own views, but I am to go to Peter. Peter 
will tell me what is the mind of the Lord ; Peter will 
guide me aright ; and if I have done this, then I have 
acquitted my own responsibility, and I can not be lost ; 
for I can say to the Almighty, ' I have used the means 
appointed by Thyself for my salvation.'" The man 
talked as if he thought his words ought to make some 
impression. 

I simply replied to all this, " That is not my faith. 
There is not a word of it in the Christian Scriptures, 
nor in the early ages of Christianity. Those claims ab- 
solutely to rule the souls of men, as the representatives 
of God upon earth, were never known or made in the 
early ages of the Church, nor for centuries after the 
days of the apostles. Peter never avowed himself ready 
to answer for the soul of another ; he pointed all to his 
Lord and Master. ISTor did Paul or any apostle ever 
act otherwise." 

At this he fired a good deal, Avent off into a long dis- 



342 ITALY IN TRAKSITION. 

course upon the Church's purity and goodness, and said 
that to him the very hatred and opposition now shown 
to her, especially by Catholics themselves, was one of 
the strongest proofs ; and that the persecutions which 
were now raised against her, and the robberies commit- 
ted upon her, were all manifestations of her Divine ori- 
gin ; that the Church had suffered much from fire and 
blood, but had always triumphed in the midst of it, and 
she would again. 

To hear a Roman priest on the soil of Rome talk of 
the Church in connection with fire and blood, especially 
in the tone of this young man, made one feel cold. He 
'evidently meant me to understand that I was not to go 
much farther; and I said very quietly, "Well, my faith 
is fairly represented in your own remains from the cata- 
combs of Rome. So far as they belong to the three 
earliest centuries, those old tombs and monuments of 
the first Christians express in the main my faith." Here 
he got positively angry, and it was plain that I must 
not proceed ; but there was something in the expression 
with which our two neighbors followed the conversa- 
tion that was puzzling to an English eye. Whenever 
the face of the priest was turned away, they looked at 
me with the most lively encouragement, as much as to 
say, " Go on, go on ;" whenever his eye came back to- 
ward them, the countenances were as still as if they had 
neither a thought nor a feeling inside of them. 

On the morning of Easter Sunday, on entering St. 



ROME IK HOLY WEEK. 34S 

Peter's, we found a considerable number of persons al- 
ready assembled. Near the great altar is one curious 
black statue, said by some to be an old Roman image 
of Jupiter ; but, whatever its origin, now representing 
St. Peter. You see a peasant, in blue jacket and red 
waistcoat, going reverently up, and kissing the black 
stone toe ; then his wife, in her red petticoat, tight 
bodice, and picturesque head-dress, bowing down and 
kissing the toe ; and then a decent townswoman bring- 
ing up her little boy, and making him kiss the toe of the 
image ; and then a respectable-looking foreigner, appar- 
ently a Belgian, with his wife, going up as if he meant 
to perform this act of devotion, but, when he reached 
the statue, stopping and looking on. Then you see two 
old ladies in elegant black dresses, without any bonnet, 
as the ladies are required to come on those great occa- 
sions, and they kiss the toe ; but it is very rare to see 
persons of this condition do so. 

In India you will see viler images and more abject 
prostration, but not more direct and open image- wor- 
ship. There is not even a shade of distinction between 
the idolatry of the one people and the other. A Hin- 
doo, according to his own theories, no more worships 
wood and stone than a Romanist. On one theory every 
thing is the supreme God, and therefore he may select 
what object he will for adoration ; on another, by virtue 
of consecration, the divinity dwells in the image, and it 
is that which he worships, and not the material. There 
seems to be no trace any where of nations who did not 



344 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

set up this distinction, to save them from the disgrace 
of worshiping their own handiwork; but no distinc- 
tions alter the fact that they make the image, bow 
down before it, go to it for help, treat it as if it were a 
being and a God. This is the true idolatry, against 
which the Old Testament is one continual controversy, 
and the New a glorious counter-institution. 

Within a few yards of this scene is a temporary plat- 
form, erected and closed in for the ladies. It is already 
full. We find a little reserved box, but are refused ad- 
mission. A nice old Frenchman whispers to me, "Just 
slip the man something, and he'll let the ladies in." 
They had no sooner taken their seats than an Italian 
lady came up, and said very indignantly, " That's the 
way; you let those in that will pay." 

With perfect ease and politeness, " Oh, signora," he 
said, " those ladies have come in by the order of an 
archbishop ;" and the old Frenchman, giving a cunning 
look, said, " Oh, that's the way at all these festivals." 

Selecting a place close by the high altar, I wait. The 
crowd gradually increases, or rather the church gradu- 
ally fills up, for even at the last it is not crowded. 
Close about me nearly all are foreigners. Two English 
clergymen are holding an earnest discussion upon the 
doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Among the others, 
Antonelli is rather a favorite topic of discourse; but 
several friars coming in interfere with the freedom 
which had been used. Just above the altar, what is 
called the tribune, or the choir, is partitioned ofi* by a 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 345 

living rail of soldiers and halberds. Into this holiest 
place now and then some privileged person in ribbon 
and stars passes. Up comes a young lieutenant in High- 
land plume and kilt, who makes for the inclosure, ex- 
pecting that his uniform will carry him in, but, to the 
amusement of his compatriots, he is sent back. After a 
while the whole of the nave is lined with Guards : first 
the Swiss Guards, in their harlequin dress, red, and yel- 
low, and blue hanging in artistic stripes about them, 
every man as tall as a Horse Guard; then what are 
called the Palatine Guards, a body formed from among 
the citizens, of which one gets two accounts — that of 
the Civilta CattoUca being that they have been recruit- 
ed by a wonderful impulse of loyalty on the part of the 
respectable citizens ; the other, which one may hear 
among the people, that most respectable men have been 
turned out, and that they have been filled up by per- 
sons whom the police have especially selected. At all 
events, they are beautifully dressed, and make a fine 
show. Then the Noble Guards appear — that rare corps 
of eighty men, every one with a title, dressed nearly 
like our Horse Guards, and in physical appearance 
worthy to be compared with them. At last the pro- 
cession comes in, purple and scarlet, and muslin, and 
embroidered silk, gilded garments, robes of changing 
red and yellow, golden robes, robes of pure white, of 
violet, of lemon ; white mitres, colored mitres, gilded 
mitres ; stars, ribbons, and plumes ; ecclesiastical, court- 
ly, military adornments, flashing steel, clattering mus- 

P2 



346 ITALY IX TRA^S^SITION. 

kets; whole files of men clown, down upon their knees; 
then, borne aloft, two great fans of ostrich feathers, with 
a peacock-feather eye upon the top of each ; and then, 
in the air, the towering tiara, with its three circlets, one 
for the kingly office, another for the priestly, the third 
for the union of the priestly, kingly, and imperial. It 
moves, above helmets, halberds, and plumes, aloft to- 
ward the vault of the nave, gliding slowly along ; over 
it a moving canopy of silk, borne on golden staves; un- 
der it, that fine old face, smiling the never-ceasing smile, 
and the old hand holding itself out, and blessing with 
the two fingers, as if there was some mystic power in 
the motion, and a moment must not be lost in confer- 
ring the benefits of it upon all around. " The portative 
throne" is a magnificent chair, set upon a litter, such as 
a high-priest in India may sometimes be seen borne 
upon by his disciples when he is marching for great re- 
ligious purposes ; and then at last you see, under this 
moving pageant, eight men, clothed in deep crimson, 
bearers of the vice-God. 

The gliding canopy, the flashing crown, the smiling 
face, the thrice gorgeous robes, the rich chair, the mov- 
ing litter, the crimson men, the golden poles, the pros- 
trate helmets and plumes, the flash, flash, flash of steel ; 
the curious, or scrutinizing, or shocked, or half-adoring 
glance of so many eyes — altogether, it is a wonderful 
scene. What is meant by the ceremony ? " The pro- 
cession represents the apostles and disciples passing 
into Galilee to meet the Savior ; but with still higher 



EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 347 

meaning, the King of Glory proceeding with the assem- 
bly of ransomed spirits from Hades into the realms of 
bliss ; and from this procession all others of the differ- 
ent Sundays of the year have their origin."* 

With this key the meaning of the whole scene is 
opened. They are acting " the King of Glory entering 
Paradise." At that moment you see crowns carried 
immediately before the throne, besides the one upon 
the head, and then recollect that the books tell you that 
the crown now worn was presented by the present 
Queen of Spain. King of glory! Queen of Spain! 
House of God! Men on their knees! Antonelli! 
Day of Christ's resurrection ! . Roman sbirri ! Lamo- 
riciere's first general order issued this holy morning ! 
What ideas ! The mind is put beyond the stage of re- 
volting, and carried into that of simple bewilderment. 

The Swiss had hard work to push us back sufficient- 
ly to make way for the procession between us and the 
altar ; and, when it had passed into the sacred inclosure, 
there were two thrones, as if one was not enough for 
the King of Glory; and all we can see now are the 
fans held high up, telling us that the old man is set 
upon the ground. As to these fans, Mr. Hemans gives 
us the following useful information : 

" The mystic import attached to them is, that as the 
eyes of peacock's feathers are set in the ostrich plumes 
composing these graceful implements, vigilance as of 
many eyes is required from the pontiff, that he may 

* ** Lent and the Holy Week in Rome. By C. J. Hemans," p. 1G3. 



348 ITALY IN TEANSITIOlSr. 

ever watch for the good of the Catholic common- 
wealth, and be thus reminded also of how many eyes 
are fixed upon him, whose actions are scanned by the 
whole world." How much the Catholic commonwealth 
is indebted to the peacocks would be a deep point for 
discussion. 

As to the import of the throne, the same gentleman 
informs us that " in this elevation of the person of the 
pontiff is implied that the vicar of Christ is the centre 
to which the eyes of the faithful should turn, as to a 
beacon-light on high, for their guidance and consola- 
tion." King of Glory ! Vicar of Christ ! Centre for 
the eyes of the faithful ! Light on high for guidance 
and consolation ! And it is an Englishman who writes ! 

Just before us is the altar — the altar of God; and 
we see laid upon it the diadems of the sovereign — his 
crown on the altar, his person on the throne. Now be- 
gins the ceremony ; and here the marvelous art of gov- 
ernment by shows has its sublimest triumph. From 
one throne to the other throne, changing mitres, chang- 
ing robes, changing voices, changing postures ; now the 
steps of the throne lined by what looks, in the distance, 
like ranks of spirits in white, reminding one of that 
picture of Martin's called the Plains of Heaven. Now 
you see ranks in red — now they move, and wave, and 
circle in mystic changes; every possible combination 
of color, of posture, and grouping, to give at the dis- 
tance a bewildering and dazzling effect. Now, directly 
before the throne, stands one as it were an angel 



ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 349 

clothed in silver, holding up a book, and the person and 
the book together serve as a silver veil, so that above 
you see nothing but the brow and the crown of the 
" King of Glory." All the skill below the sky could 
not more perfectly have devised the means of convey- 
ing to the looker-on the idea of God upon earth. Those 
who are used to it chat freely, discussing the music and 
the men. 

The friars have their word about who this one is, 
and who that one, and so on. But presently the Pope 
comes to the altar, and there officiates. M. About says 
that he performs his part in the great ceremonies of the 
Church ill. He has a hasty walk, but, with that excep- 
tion, he seemed to be the most impressive man they had 
to show at Rome. He went through his part of the 
performance at the altar as if he meant every motion of 
his hand, every word of his lips. One did believe that 
the soul of the old man was in it. What was wonder- 
ful, you could actually distinguish the words ; for noth- 
ing is rarer than to be able to catch those of a priest, 
even when as near him as we now were; and at one 
point, just about the moment of consecration, when, 
according to his own belief, he was (as the Friar of 
Bologna said), by a few divine words, changing the 
elements of bread and wine into the body, blood, soul, 
and Divinity of Christ, there was in the fine face of the 
old man a beam that looked more like happy devotion 
than any thing I had seen in Rome. The dejected de- 
votion fitting conventual ideas you see upon many 



350 ITALY IX TRiiKSITION. 

countenances, but this was the only one, except per- 
haps those of some nuns, where I had marked such an 
expression as this. At the moment that the Host was 
elevated, trumpets pealed out somewhere — where one 
could not tell. Every one gave a different account of 
the quarter from which the sound came, according to 
the position they had been in at the time ; and this was 
the only part of the ceremony that did any thing more 
than make one wonder at the art of priests and the 
simplicity of crowds. It was pure, soft, silvery music, 
streaming out from you could not tell where, but filling 
that vast temple, as if two angels had been whispering 
in different parts, and others singing behind them. Of 
course the soldiers knelt at the elevation of the Host, 
while "the King of Glory" stood at the altar. Down 
they went ; the friars beside and behind me went upon 
their knees too. 

Up to this moment I had beeniRi the front rank next 
to the Guards, but could not bear the idea of standing 
before a kneeling man, and therefore stejDped back be- 
hind a friar ; for no one else seemed to think of kneel- 
ing but the soldiers and the friars ; thereby I lost my 
good position. The Pope goes back from the altar to 
the throne, seven candelabra being borne before him 
(tliis is the language of Mr. Hemans), "mystically bear- 
ing reference to the candlesticks amid which appeared 
the vision of the Son of God to the Evangelist, also to 
the seven gifts of the Spirit." Here, again, is an at- 
tempt to represent the seven lamps before the throne 
of "theKinc^ofGlorv." 



HOME IIS" HOLY WEEK. 351 

I ought to have mentioned that when the Pope came 
to the altar, the sacristan had, in his presence, to eat 
two out of the three wafers that had been prepared, 
and to drink part of the wine, as a precaution against 
poison. It was not until after being thus assured that 
the vicar of Christ proceeded to turn the remaining 
wafer "into the body, blood, soul, and Divinity of 
Christ." Mr. Hemans says that this, " though a mere" 
form, is of immemorial usage at the papal high mass. 
Then two cardinal deacons took their station at the 
altar, as we are told by the same authority, to represent 
the two angels who stood at the sepulchre. After the 
Pope has gone back to his throne, the Host and the 
chalice are solemnly carried down from the altar along 
the floor, then up the steps of the throne. Here is he 
seated in the temple of God, and up to him is carried 
all that is called God — he above, it below ; his crown 
at this moment upon the altar, his enthroned person 
higher than the sacrament. While others kneel and 
prostrate themselves to receive it, it is handed to him 
seated upon his throne. Seated, he takes the Host; 
seated, the chalice from men ujoon their knees ; but 
he does not disturb his robe to take the cup in his 
hands. A golden tube is in it, and through this he 
sucks a little of the wine. Consecrated particles are 
presented to him by kneeling men, and he distributes 
them from that throne to the angels in white, and red, 
and gold, and purple, and embroidery, and they again 
to those who are kncclincf around him. After this 



352 ITALY IN TEANSmON". 

pontiff again puts on the triple crown, again seats him- 
self on the portative throne, and the chief priest of St. 
Peter's presents him with a purse of white velvet, con- 
taining the fee for saying mass. 

When the deacon cardinals were at the altar, one 
stood for a considerable time on our side — a tall, 
smooth, well-looking man. The whisper went round 
every where, " Antonelli, Antonelli!" He performed his 
part of the ceremony with more grace and propriety 
than many of the priests, but without any of the ap- 
parent interest the old Pope seemed to take in it. He 
had in his appearance none of the qualities which his 
reputation w^ould lead one to expect ; neither ferocity 
nor grossness, nor the marks upon his countenance of 
those struggles with conscience through which men go 
in a long course of heavy misdoing. There he stood, 
looking down from the altar, apparently pleased with it, 
the soldiers, himself, the ladies, and all the world. He 
might not have any body suspecting, or hating, or 
dreading him ; he rather gave you the impression of 
one of those smooth, clear-headed, strong, narrow men, 
just made to ruin governments by force of the ability 
they have to push on their own narrow way until they 
knock against a wall. In fact, from the peculiar kind of 
complacency that seemed hardly to smile on his counte- 
nance, but rather to underlie it, one could imagine that 
he took pleasure, as some of those narrow men do, in 
the idea of being unpopular, taking it as a tribute to 
their greatness ; whereas personal unpopularity is gen- 



KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 353 

erally the effect of personal faults, though unpopularity 
for measures may be simply the result of being ahead 
of your day. It was hard to look on that countenance, 
and think he was so bad a man as the public voice rep- 
resents him. One has strong faith in conscience ; and 
how any one occupying such a place as he does could 
commit all the immoralities, peculations, tyrannies, and 
betrayals of faith which are laid to his door, without his 
countenance bearing marks of internal struggles, was 
very hard to imagine. Naming this to a gentleman 
occupying a place under the government, I made him 
laugh. "Conscience!" he said; " what conscience could 
you expect Antonelli to have to struggle with? Do 
you not know who he was ?" 

" Oh ! it can not be true that he is the nephew of 
Gasparoni ?" the Dick Turpin of Italy. 

" No, I do not say he was a nephew of his, but he 
was a relative. You know very well he belonged to a 
brigand family at Sonnino ; and what trouble you are 
to expect a man brought up as a brigand, and then 
trained as a priest, to have with conscience, I do not 
know." 

" But it can not be true that he has played false with 
the public money in the way the people say." 

"Where did the money come from?" he replies. 
" All the world knows what the Antonelli family were. 
They were brigands. What are they now ? There are 
four brothers : the first is the man we are talking of, in 
whose hands are all the resources of the state ; the sec- 



354 ITALY IX TRANSITION. 

ond is governor of the bank ; the third fattens upon 
monopolies and taxes ; and what is the fourth ? The 
Stock Exchange agent for the other three. He is to be 
found in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and so on ; and in 
all these places the investments of the Antonelli family- 
are something fabulous. We know that all that is our 
money." 

Presently the great procession is formed again. 
Down it comes from the choir, sweeping past the altar 
• — soldiers, priests, bishops, mitred abbots, cardinals, sen- 
ators, embassadors, officials of all sorts, going forward, 
with crowns, and candles, and crosses, and the uplifted 
throne, and the moving canopy — until at last, in the 
middle of the nave, it suddenly stands. The old man 
is let down, and goes upon his knees, and immediately 
the kneeling ranks stand up with a clatter of arms. His 
face is directed upward as if in adoration ; and yet he 
appears to be looking at some object. Following the 
line of his eye, you see a few canons in white up on the 
httle balcony, where the rehcs are kept, reminding one 
of Brahmins in white robes up on the top of a car in 
India ; and they are holding up the same undiscernible 
something we described before — the relics. And the 
embassadors of all the Catholic powers, and some Prot- 
estant ones, and all this multitude, and this mighty ar- 
ray of armed men, are gathered here to see this poor old 
man set the world the example of adoring relics. While 
in this act he had laid off the tiara, which is again put 
on, bringing with it the recollection of the Queen of 



EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 355 

Spain and Antonelli: these not holy ideas every now and 
then cross the mind ; and as the name of one prelate 
after another is whispered, stories that you have heard — 
such stories as might be gathered up in Windsor about 
the court of George the Fourth, put together with some 
from Cairo about the doings of the pashas — come and 
go, in spite of one's efforts to keep them out. For let 
it be said, once for all, that when Romans begin to tell 
stories about the private life of the Vatican, you had 
better shut your ears. ^ Accounts of cruelty may be re- 
peated in England without doing any harm, but impu- 
rity leaves a soil every where. 

Again the throne is up and the procession formed, 
and, according to usage, the Pope ought to have gone 
lip to the balcony in front of the Cathedral, from it to 
deliver his benediction. To fulfill the ideal of this cere- 
mony, the great space, with its colonnades and fount- 
ains, the Vatican on one side and the Basilica in front, 
ought to be crowded with people ; the sun shining, the 
Pope uj)on the balcony resplendent in all the glories of 
his court ; and then that wonderful voice of his, sound- 
ing out to the extreme length of the place in sweet and 
solemn tones, should pronounce the words of the Bene- 
diction. But on this occasion it was not so. The 
weather had set in gloomy in the morning, and now the 
rain was pouring down, as it does in Rome, with half- 
tropical hurry. There could be no out-of-door Benedic- 
tion that day ; so we were surprised all at once, when 
the procession appeared to be on the point of going 



356 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

away, to find it stop just before where the ladies had 
got into the private box, and where we then all happen- 
ed to be. Seated aloft, with the book held up to him, 
the old man, with the finest grace, wdth commanding 
and pleasing notes, intoned so that every child in the 
Church might have heard him, lifting up his hands: 
" May the holy apostles Peter and Paul, in whose pow- 
er and authority we confide, intercede for us with the 
Lord. Amen ! Through the prayers and merits of the 
blessed Mary ever Virgin, and the blessed Michael the 
Archangel, and the blessed John the Baptist, and the 
holy apostles Peter and Paul, and all saints, may the 
omnipotent God have mercy upon you! May all your 
sins be remitted. May Jesus Christ lead you to eter- 
nal life. Amen ! Indulgence, absolution, and remission 
of all your sins, space for true and fruitful repentance, 
hearts ever contrite, and amendment of life, may the 
omnipotent and merciful God afford you. Amen ! And 
may the blessing of the omnipotent God, Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, descend upon you, and remain with 
you ever. Amen !" It was only the last sentence that 
vras pronounced standing ; all the rest came from the 
potentate seated upon the throne. But as he was pro- 
nouncing the word "blessing," he rose, made the sign 
of the cross upon the front, then on the one side, then 
on the other, over the people ; at the word " descend" 
stretching out his arms to heaven; and then folding 
them over his breast with feeling, grace, and jDOwerful 
impression. Each motion is regularly prescribed, and 
to be found in the books. 



EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 357 

The ceremony was over, and that which the Romans 
looked to as the best part of it was not to come. The 
rain had stopped the illmnination ; there was to be no 
glory on St. Peter's that night, none of the usual splen- 
did display of fire-works in the beautiful gardens of the 
Pincian Hill — as fine a promenade as any one need wish 
for, with full views of existing, and endless recollections 
of ancient Rome. The programme of the day had in- 
cluded Lamoriciere's General Order, the ceremonies of 
the Church, the out-door Benediction, and the fire-works : 
the two last items failed. 

On my return to Florence I happened again to sit at 
table next to a Roman alluded to in the chapter on that 
city, who appeared to have entirely recovered his spir- 
its, and to be full of hope, taking great heart from the 
doings of that Easter Sunday. General Lamoriciere, 
appointed in the Pope's name to train foreigners to kill 
Italians, had called the patriots " Mussulmen." Thus, 
as he thought, the Pope had committed a final blun- 
der; the general had made a "buffoon" of himself; and 
the conscience of every honest man in the country was 
engaged against them both. Then, he said, "The 
weather turned revolutionist, and drowned the blessing 
from the balcony and the illuminations altogether." 

As we left in the midst of a pouring rain, taking a last 
look on that Basilica, the feelings were as solemn as the 
weather was dull. And this is the great temple of the 
Romish Church, and we have been witnessing to-day 
her highest model of Christian Avorship ! Except the 



358 ITALY IN tea:n'sitio:n'. 

words of the Benediction, there has not been one sylla- 
ble for eye to read or ear to hear conveying sense to a 
human mind ; and even they were in a dead language. 
It is a Christian temple, yet it is full of images ; men 
are bowing down to them, and saying prayers before 
them, and kissing them. It is a Christian temple, and 
yet no word either of the law of God or of the Gospel 
of Christ can be read among its innumerable inscriptions 
in the language of the people. A Christian temple, and 
yet never does human voice within it read, so as to 
reach the understanding, one word that Christ said or 
an ajDOstle wrote. It is a Christian temple, and yet in 
it one shows himself for the kneeling worship of his fel- 
low-man, receiving honors that earthly kings do not 
claim, receiving them in God's house, and before what 
is called God's altar : when he kneels, men stand up ; 
when he rises, men kneel down. Words ring in one's 
ear, foretelling that falling away, and the coming of that 
strange power, " the man of sin," one of whose charac- 
teristics was this, that he should " exalt himself above 
all that is called God, or that is worshiped ; so that he 
as God sitteth in the temj^le of God, showing himself 
that he is God." The very words of this passage seem- 
ed burned into the heart by the proceedings of that 
morning. He does not say that he is God, but as God 
sits in the temple ; and, without saying that he is God, 
" shows himself that he is." Image-worship is bad, and 
its effects upon the human mind are always debasing, 
as the history of every heathen and every relapsed Chris- 



HOME IN HOLY WEEK. 359 

tian nation proves ; but there is something in this man- 
worship more directly degrading and demoralizing. 
Some sophism by which you adore an invisible being 
through an image may keep a mind tolerably free from 
a sense of direct degradation ; but falling down upon 
the knees in multitudes before a man in the house of 
God is such an outrage at once upon all the feelings of 
humanity, and all the theory, not to say the practice, of 
the religion of the Bible, that religion and manliness go 
down together, and the whole nature falls into the posi- 
tion of a servile instrument of whatever may come from 
the lips of the vice-God ; and this is done under the 
profession of being vicar of Christ, and representing the 
King of Glory. 

When He who was indeed the Lord of Glory dwelt 
here among us in a human frame, men did behold His 
glory, but it was another than this ; it was the glory 
full of grace and truth ; and so careful was he not to 
connect any manifestations of Divine majesty with the 
human form, that on the only occasion when he did per- 
mit a supernatural manifestation to transfigure the 
marred and humble face that is never described to us, 
He placed Himself in careful seclusion, with only three 
chosen witnesses to look upon Him. And when for 
one single hour he did accept kingly human honors. He 
took care that a humble steed and a meek bearing 
should be His protest beforehand against all pomp in 
His name, and against all man-worship, under any and 
every circumstance. After witnessing a scene like that, 



360 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

one can no longer be angry at popery or rail at Rome. 
The departure from even the very theories of the Bible 
is too complete. The assumption to represent and even 
to personate the Godhead is too unblushing ; the super- 
stition too low ; the claim to entire command of men's 
principles and souls, of their moral selves and being, is 
too dreadful to permit of irritation. The feeling is awe 
— deep awe and horror. You feel face to face with a 
destroying power. Those courts and chambers around 
you whisper of stories that would make you shudder 
even hi Benares or Constantinople. The tracts which 
encircle the city mourn under the sorrows of desolation 
and oppression joined together, and seem written over 
with the woes denounced by the old prophets against 
apostate lands. 



dDjicptn ID. 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME DURING THE 

TEN YEARS OP RESTORATION AS 

SHOWN BY THE OFFICIAL 

DOCUMENTS. 



Q 



The first act of Louis IsTapoleon Bonaparte as a man 
was to appear in arms, a rebel against the government 
of the Pope ; his first as a ruler was to turn the arms 
of France against those who had succeeded in over- 
throwing it. 

When General Oudinot entered Rome at the head of 
his victorious troops, the people, beaten, but not cowed, 
surrounded him, crying, "Italy forever! Liberty for- 
ever! Down with the temporal power!" Touched 
with a soldier's generosity, he displayed his interest 
particularly in the ofiicers of the Roman army, who 
crowded to demand their passports, that they might 
become voluntary exiles while yet there was time. He 
begged them to stay, saying that the army would be 
maintained ; and especially urged this on General Bar- 
tolucci, who had held the chief command of the cavalry 
during the siege, saying, " Why should you refuse to 
serve a government which, even if it be that of the 
Pope, will still be both Italian and Constitutional?" 
" General," replied Bartolucci, " I have had too sorrow- 
ful proofs in prisons of what the clerical government is 
to venture on another. The day will come, perhaps, 



364 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

when you will call to mind these words, and it is not 
far off. I beg you to give me my passport." 

Five days after he had entered Rome, General Oudi- 
not, in the faith of an honest man, representing a great, 
and, at that moment, triumphant nation, published an 
important decree, signed with his own name. Its first 
article dissolved the existing National Guard, to please 
the restored government ; the second article re-estab- 
lished the National Guard upon its ancient principles, 
thus giving back to the citizens a material guarantee of 
their liberties. The general found that the first article 
was immediately executed ; as to the second, obstacles 
were interposed which even he was unable to over- 
come. Thus Rome had the double satisfaction of break- 
ing its own faith, and forcing a great nation, to which 
it owed its restoration, to appear as its accomplice in 
the act. 

The spirit in which the clerical authorities peeped 
from behind their hedge of French bayonets Avas first 
indicated in this act, and it is fully expressed in the fol- 
lowing circular, to be found in the second volume of 
the " Documents," p. 649, 650. The Criminal and Civil 
Court of Fuligno, on April 2'7th, 1849, delivered a judg- 
ment, in which it records how commissioners visited a 
convent, found the brother Phihp Rossi, Abbot, and 
Vicar of the Inquisition, who told them that he had 
known that they were coming for three days, and had 
taken care to destroy the documents belonging to the 
Holy Office, and others besides. The tone in which he 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 365 

did this roused suspicion ; he was searched, and, among 
other documents, the following was found upon him : 

"CiEcuLAR N. 167. R. P. Alpha +. 
" Beloved Brethren, — ^The God of mercies, before 
giving His faithful people the glory of Paradise, loves 
that they should gain the palm of martyrdom. Calam- 
itous vicissitudes, which press upon humanity and re- 
ligion, demand that you, beloved brethren, should use 
all the means which are in your power to reconquer all 
our violated rights, and to destroy the machinations of 
our enemies. The Liberals, the Jacobites, the Car- 
bonari, the Republicans, are only synonymous terms. 
They wish to destroy religion and all its ministers ; we, 
on the other hand, must destroy — even to the very 
ashes of their race. Go on in your zeal, training the 
friars in your neighborhood, and the country people, as 
you have always done in time past ; tell them that, at 
the sound of the church bells, they must not be wanting 
at the holy muster, where every one of us must without 
pity plunge his weapons into the bosoms of the pro- 
faners of our most holy religion. Think upon the vows 
which arise from us to the Almighty : they are to de- 
stroy, to the last man, our enemies, not excepting in- 
fants, to prevent the vengeance which these would one 
day exercise upon our disciples. Then, in fine, see to 
it, that when we shall send out the cry for reaction, 
every one of you shall fearlessly imitate us. 

"Alpha + P. C. R., Gaeta, February 15th.'' 



366 ITALY IN TRAKSITION. 

This document indicates the spirit infused into the 
working clergy. So soon as the French government 
became aware how dark were the prospects for the 
country on which they had forced His Holiness, the 
President of the Republic interposed in that famous 
letter to Edgar Ney, which served as a public protest, 
that France could only be the minister of civilized and 
rational government. The manner in which this was 
met will sufficiently appear from the following letter of 
Cardinal Antonelli to the governors of the provinces, in 
which he coolly sets aside every intimation conveyed in 
the president's document, and even says that the French 
authorities in Rome themselves regard it with disfavor. 

"Most Illustrious and Reveeend Sie, 
"A LETTEE which assumcs to be written by the Pres- 
ident of the French Republic to Lieutenant Colonel 
Ney in Rome has given increased audacity to the band 
of libertines, the sworn enemies of the pontifical gov- 
ernment ; and rumors are every where spread about 
that it is intended to impose burdensome conditions on 
the Holy See. The anarchical party, in consequence of 
these expectations, displays an insulting attitude, as it 
believes and hopes to recover itself from the discom- 
fiture it has undergone. But this letter has not any 
OFFICIAL CHAEACTEE, being merely the product of a 
private correspondence. I will add, also, that even by 
the French authorities in Rome it is viewed with dis- 
pleasure. 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IK ROME. 367 

"The Holy Father is seriously occupying himself 
about giving to his subjects such reforms as he believes 
useful to their true and solid good ; nor has any power 
imposed laws upon him in reference to this, he aiming 
to attain so important an end without betraying the 
duties of his own conscience. 

" Profit by this intimation to contradict the falsehood 
promulgated to the prejudice of public order, and satis- 
fy every one that it is the interest of all the powers to 
sustain the liberty and independence of the supreme 
pontiff for the peace of Europe. 

" With sentiments of distinguished esteem, I sub- 
scribe myself, most reverend and illustrious sir, your 
most affectionate servant, 

" G. Cardinal Antonelli.* 

''Portici, September 8th, 1849." 

Now came the great question for the Romans— 
whether or not the Constitution which the Pope had 
granted them in 1848 would be abolished. Suspicions 
that it would were generally entertained ; but up to 
the day of the battle of Novara, the documents issued 
by the exiled prince uniformly appealed to the Consti- 
tution itself as an existing pact between him and the 
people. In that solemn instrument, the Pope had de- 
scribed the new representative institutions as the re- 
establishment of an old right of the Roman people. 
" In ancient times, our boroughs {comicni) had the priv- 
* <' Documents," vol. i., p. liv. 



368 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

ilege of self-government, under laws selected by them- 
selves^ with the sanction of the sovereign. The char- 
acter of modern civilization would not permit that the 
same form of government should be renewed, because, 
through the diversity of laws and usages, different mu- 
nicipalities were completely estranged one from anoth- 
er ; but we are now about to confide this prerogative 
to two councils of trusty and patriotic citizens, one of 
which shall be nominated by us, the other returned 
from every part of the state by a fitting form of elec- 
tion." 

Notwithstanding this appeal to the antiquity of the 
rights embodied in the new Constitution, it might be 
said that the Pope conceded it under pressure of fear. 
None, however, will deny that, during the time he staid 
in the Neapolitan States, he was a perfectly free agent, 
and every public document he issued a spontaneous act. 
On the Yth of December (1848) he put forth a procla- 
mation formally dissolving the two chambers. In this 
he appeals to the Constitution, calling it "the funda- 
mental statute ;" citing the fourteenth article as the law 
of the realm, in virtue of which he iss,ues the decree. 
He then prorogues the two chambers, saying that he 
reserves to himself the right to determine " the day 
when they shall be convoked anew." On the 13th of 
December of the same year, Cardinal Antonelli issued a 
circular to the embassadors at the papal court, in which 
he informs them that, at the date above mentioned, the 
Holy Father had thought it well to issue a decree pro- 



PAPAL GOVEENMENT IN EOME. 369 

roguing the houses, according to the terms of "the fun- 
damental statute." 

On the 18th of February, 1849, Cardinal Antonelli 
addresses to foreign courts a note, in which he refers to 
the gracious acts whereby the pontiff had entitled him- 
self to the love and gratitude of his people. " The Holi- 
ness of our Lord in the first days of his pontificate had 
no other aim than to show beneficence to his subjects, 
providing, in every respect, for their highest good, ac- 
cording to the exigencies of the times." In fact, after 
having pronounced the words of pardon to those who, 
for political crimes, were then exiled or lay in prisons, 
after having instituted the Council of State and the 
Council of Ministers, and accorded, from the imperious 
force of circumstances, the institution of the Civic 
Guard, a new law for a decent liberty of the press, and, 
in fine, " the fundamental statute for the States of the 
Church, he had surely a right to that gratitude which 
subjects owe to a prince who regards them as his chil- 
dren, and was promising them a reign of love ! 

His Holiness had appointed a commission during his 
absence, who posted upon the Avails of the palace at 
Castel Gondolfo a formal protest against the things 
that had been done and were doing in Rome ; and 
among their causes of complaint they allege " the arbi- 
trary dissolution of the representative houses." Final- 
ly, the Pope himself, in a secret Consistory held in Gaeta 
on the 20th of April, when the French w^ere just about 
laying siege to Rome, delivered an "allocution," in 

Q 2 



370 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

which he appeals to those " largesses which were by us 
voluntarily and spontaneously conceded in the first days 
of our pontificate," complaining that they had produced 
no fruit of loyalty in his people ; and he used this lan- 
guage: "Every one of you well knows how a constitu- 
tional form of government was introduced into Italy, 
and how, on the 14th day of March, in the last year, 
came into hght the statute conceded by us to our sub- 
jects. But as the implacable enemies of order and pub- 
he repose aim on all occasions but to use their efforts 
against the pontifical government, and incessantly to 
agitate the people with uneasiness and suspicions, by 
means of the press, of clubs, of committees, and of other 
artifices, they never wearied of factiously calumniating 
the government, although it was using all solicitude and 
zeal that the statute so much desired should be pubhsh- 
ed with the greatest possible dispatch."* 

There remained^ therefore, no question, first, that the 
iPope avowed the Constitution to have been his own 
voluntary act ; and, secondly, that so long as his power 
to force himself back uj)on his people remained in doubt, 
he constantly appealed to it as the fundamental pact ex- 
isting between him and them. 

Up to that time the people had faith in his probity ; 
and, however much they suspected those around him, 
thought Pio Nono incapable of deliberately perjuring 
himself to his subjects. Still the impression began to 
gain ground that the Constitution would be annulled. 
* See ** Documents," vol. i., p. 1, et seq. 



PAPAL GOVEENMENT IN EOME. 371 

To the credit of the Marquesses Bevilacqua and Ricci, 
two of the Pope's high officers, they had delivered their 
solemn protest against his long stay away from his own 
states, saying that his enemies nsed it to draw infer- 
ences — though unjustly — of different political principles 
from those he publicly professed. They pointed out 
how useful it would be that the word of the sovereign 
should assure the doubtful against ''the malignant in- 
sinuations that there may be a tendency in the councils 
of the prince to take away the liberties of the Constitu- 
tion, and to deviate from the system of benignity which 
was and is the glory of the reigning pontiff," as also the 
great importance that government should, in its institu- 
tions, "and in every act, observe not only the essence, 
but the forms of constitutional government." 

All this proved futile ; other counsels prevailed ; and 
at last, on the 12th of September, 1849, appeared that 
celebrated motic proprio^ by which the Constitution was 
brushed aside as if it had been the dust deposited by 
the wind of revolution, and the court of Rome re-estab- 
iished itself on the double basis of foreign bayonets and 
broken faith. The documents from which these facts 
are drawn will be found in vol. i., p. 1-47. 

Then sounded out a word which has often been one 
of healing to a fevered country, but which, since the 
day that it fell from the lips of Pio Nono, has ever been 
the bitterest word his subjects could pronounce ; and 
among them one may hear human tones pass through 
every variation of contempt, anguish, despair, shame, 
and rage, as they utter the sweet word " Amnesty." 



372 ITALY IN TEANSITIOIT. 

Under pretense of pardon a document was issued, in 
which, whole classes were pubhcly excluded from the 
mercy naturally expected from a prince returning to 
renew interrupted relations with his people: every 
member of the provisional government, every member 
of the Constituent Assembly, every member of the Tri- 
imivirate and the Republican government, all the chiefs 
of the miUtary corps, all who had ever come under any 
existing penal law; and, besides, every person who had 
any government employment, metropolitan, provincial, 
or municipal, in the army, or in the poUce, was warned 
that his appointment would not hold good. Frightful 
as was the wholesale slaughter of liberties and interests 
thus decreed upon paper, it was yet more horrible in its 
mode of execution ; for the clerical authority, as has ap- 
peared in the chapter upon the Romagna, stretched its 
wide terms so as to include all who could be trouble- 
some in the fell swoop of condemnation. 

ISTow began a struggle between governors and peo- 
ple which has never relaxed for a single day. Among 
the modes of popular resistance, one was a refusal to 
smoke tobacco, because it yielded a revenue to the gov- 
ernment; and in the "Official Journal'' of the 13th of 
June, 1851, the following article of police intelligence 
may be found : " Mary Biaggi, of the city of Castello, 
having been convicted, upon the testimony of sworn 
witnesses, of having insulted peaceful smokers, has been 
condemned to receive twenty strokes of the lash. Ac- 
cording to the existing laws against the disturbers of 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 373 

public order, she has suffered the penalty at Perugia, on 
the 9th instant."* This penalty of the "lash," and that 
of the " cudgel," had been freely used for many years, 
when Cardinal Antonelli thought it well to inscribe it 
in the laws ; and, accordingly, a decree will be found 
signed by him, and dated on the 30th of July, 1855, in 
which the punishment of the " cudgel" is formally pre- 
scribed. 

The ease with which severe punishments can be ap- 
plied may be seen from the following, of an earlier pe- 
riod, signed by Cardinal Bernetti. " As the charge of 
insulting a policeman, for which L. Sevignano was ar- 
rested, has not been proved ; and considering the other 
circumstances, and the not short imprisonment which 
he suffered ; the Holiness of our Lord, to whom I have 
submitted the report of the trial transmitted by your 
excellency in the dispatch of the 4th instant, has gra- 
ciously deigned to condescend to accord to him release 
from prison. At the same time, he is to be laid under 
solemn injunction to conduct himself well, and he is to 
be bound by such other conditions as your excellency 
shall judge necessary, under penalty of penal servitude 
for five years, to be incurred simply by the fact of trans- 
gression, independently of whatever penalties are assign- 
ed by the laws, in case of any other offenses."f Thus a 
man against whom nothing is proved, who has already 
suffered a long imprisonment, is to have hanging over 
his head, besides all penalties written in the laws, should 

* *' Documents," vol. i., p. xcviii. t Ihid., vol. ii., p. 595. 



374 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

he incur them, another dictated by the simple will of 
the minister, to be inflicted without the trouble of a 
trial, and that no less than five years' penal servitude ! 

On the 9th of February, 1851, a Roman of the name 
of Dreosti, and a Frenchwoman of the name of Clarisse, 
on the Pincian Hill, burned Bengal lights in the Italian 
tri-color — green, white, and red, and they were con- 
demned to twenty years of the galleys ; but the woman 
being a French subject, and the authorities of that na- 
tion interposing, the penalty was commuted into that 
of exile. On the I7th of February, 1852, four men 
were condemned by the same court for the same offense, 
of burning Bengal lights of the tri-color — one to two 
years, and the other to the galleys for life, and the oth- 
ers, one to five years, and the other to twenty years of 
the galleys. Of these poor fellows, two had the good 
fortune to be in the Romagna on the 12th of June last, 
when the government of the priests fell ; but the oth- 
ers are still in hold.* 

On the 6th of September, 1850, sixteen executions 
took place in the city of Bologna. According to the 
laws of the Roman States, no one can be capitally pun- 
ished under age ; and among the sixteen were two mi- 
nors. This was the case that has given M. About the 
bitter sarcasm, that Pio Nono had conferred two years 
of age upon youths that they might have the privilege 
of being hanged. One Joseph Marchetti was shot for 
stealing seventy-seven halfpence. 

* ** Documents," vol. i., p. xcix. 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 375 

A new invention was adopted at Rome, well calcu- 
lated to uproot the last foundation of civil morality, and 
to drive from the hearts of men any remaining idea that 
they had a home or a country. This consisted of a se- 
cret court, established in every province, composed of 
the governor or delegate, of a councilor, a priest, and a 
private citizen ; but, to the immortal praise of Italians 
be it told, that the archives of the Romagna do not 
show a single case in which any private citizen did not 
refuse the disreputable oifice tendered to him by the 
government ; and, therefore, those courts were actually 
composed only of persons in the public pay. At the 
head of them all was placed — not an Italian, but a for- 
eigner — an implacable Spanish prelate of the name of 
Avella, who, more thoroughly legitimist than the Pope 
himself, would never acknowledge Isabella, but, to the 
day of his d.eath, called Don Carlos King of Spain. 
Under the authority of this worthy and his subordinate 
councils were placed all persons who held any public 
or semi-public employment — in the army, the Church, 
the National Guard, government or municipal offices, or 
factories holding a government monopoly, such as to- 
bacco. Their duties were to keep them in surveillance^ 
and deal with them as they pleased. The accused per- 
son never had any idea of charge, accuser, judges, or 
proceedings. All he knew was that, at a certain mo- 
ment, a man walked into his house with a sentence in 
his hand, by which he was dismissed, or suspended, or 
removed to some distant place. 



376 ITALY IN TRAKSITIOiN'. 

One day in the streets of Rome one hwidred m^oih^r^ 
of families lately in comfortable circumstances knelt 
down upon the stones with veiled faces, and hands 
silently held out for charity. The people rushed in 
numbers to give them money ; and French officers, pale 
with rage, might be seen giving them their purses en- 
tire, and walking away to curse their fate as abettors 
of abominations. In one house ni7ie children were 
awaiting the return of the mother with the fruits of 
her day's begging ; but it proved that she was in prison 
for what was naturally looked upon as a public demon- 
stration against the government. All the documents 
of these Councils of Censure had been carefully de- 
stroyed throughout the Romagna, so that none of their 
proceedings were found in the archives, and all that the 
present collection of documents contains is the judg- 
ments sent from Rome in confirmation of the provincial 
recommendations. From these we shall just give a 
few specimens. Men are sentenced : " For Levity" — 
" For not feeling rightly in matters of poUtics" — " For 
showing himself rather excited" — " For having the ap- 
pearance of one rather inclined to novelties" — ''For 
being imprudently talkative" — " Because, when he was 
sent to Bologna to the office of the high commissioner, 
he gave a very bad outline of Monsignor Bedini" — 
" Because he read the papers with a high voice, making 
digressions or changing his tone when he read any 
thing blackening the pontifical government and the 
priests ; and he ridiculed Catholic sovereigns, and espe- 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 377 

cially King Bomba — that is, the King of Naples ;" and 
the last we shall quote is, " Because he will never be 
good stuff to cut an employe out of."* 

As one example of the kind of punishment sometimes 
administered, we may quote the words of Cardinal Ber- 
netti : " For M. and R. I will send you the orders of re- 
moval to remote and unhealthy places, giving at the 
same time the names of those who shall replace them 
at Rimini ; and I shall not forget the name of the well- 
deserving P. G. on the same occasion."f 

When we know what some of the unhealthy places 
in the Roman States are, a measure of this kind is noth- 
ing more than a quiet way of condemning men to die 
in their beds. 

In the matter of municipal government, provision was 
made for giving the right of election to the citizens. 
Municipal bodies were forbidden to meet or discuss 
without permission of the governor of the province. 
All votes were null until approved, and all appoint- 
ments to office. No correspondence was allowed be- 
tween one corporation and another. No address to 
the government. To the corporations, however, was 
committed the care of public education, with the simple 
condition that they should be entirely governed by the 
bishop. As to public charities, the corporations had 
every thing connected with them in charge except the 

* "Documents," vol. ii., p. 597-600. 
t Id. ih., p. 592. 



378 ITALY IN TRAHSrnOjSr. 

endowments. Still there was a theory of election ; and 
lists of persons ehgible, and of the electors, were com- 
piled in 1851; only it was ordered that they should 
contain the names of none but persons whose conduct, 
both political and religious, was irreprehensible. From 
these lists the Pope chose ; and after three years had 
passed, they were to be drawn up anew ; but just be- 
fore the time, a circular arrived from the Minister of the 
Interior, who thought it better that the electors should 
not be convoked, but that the new corporations should 
be returned by those now existing. At the end of 
the next three years, when the time for re-election ap- 
proached, another circular to the same effect was is- 
sued ; and thus, says the editor of the " Official Docu- 
ments," " the law remains an insult, a printed paper to 
make sport of the Pope's subjects, but useful to say in 
diplomatic circles, 'We have a municipal law based 
upon election.' " 

From the same hand we shall quote a few remarks 
on the question of ffaance. When Galli became Minis- 
ter of Finance, he thought of new appliances for enrich- 
ing the treasury. He had three millions of crowns 
coined in bronze, the nominal value of which was out 
of all proportion to the real. He did not alter the Al- 
manac, but simply required that in the course of a year, 
instead of tioelve monthly payments of taxes there 
should be fourteen. Cardinal Antonelli issued a law 
to punish the landowners of the state for the visitation 
by which the vine was blighted, by simply ordering 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 379 

them to pay 350,000 crowns to remunerate the govern- 
ment for the loss of its tax, just as if in Ireland the gov- 
ernment had made the people pay in extra taxes the 
value of all that was lost to it by the potato famine. 
Here are the words of the decree: "By reason of ad- 
verse vicissitudes experienced by our vine crops, it is 
difficult to derive from them a satisfactory produce; 
and therefore the collection of the regular taxes is de- 
ferred, and for it is substituted an impost charged upon 
the townships of the state, amounting to the annual 
sum of 350,000 crowns, to begin on the 1st of January, 
1855, and to be distributed among the respective town- 
ships." 

This, however, was only for the secular subjects of 
the Pope, and for secular property. The sacred classes 
fared better. In the same year, 1855, Cardinal Barbe- 
rini declares " that all grapes, corn, and other produce, 
given to parish priests and canons as tithes, shall be ex- 
empt from taxes, to preserve the rights and privileges 
of the Church."* 

All this time the Church property went on increas- 
ing, so that from nothing in 1814, in 1835 it had reach- 
ed a sum of between six and seven millions of money, 
and now is above thirty. Here we shall insert the 
tale of 

An ageeeable Exectttorship. 
We gave, in a former chapter, one story of a Bonac- 
* "Documents, "vol. i., p. 377. 



380 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

cioli of Ferrara, and here we give another. Professor 
Thomas Bonaccioli, on the death of his insane brother, 
Francis, the advocate, expected to succeed to his im- 
mense fortune of a miUion scudi, which, in the popular 
notion of Italians, is much the same as a million sterling 
with us : in actual value, it is not more than £220,000. 
But, to the horror of the old man, a will was produced, 
dated June 12th, 1854, constituting the Archbishop of 
Ferrara sole executor ; but who was the favored heir ? 
The Church ? No. The poor ? No. The friars ? 
The Pope ? The Propaganda ? nuns ? convents ? or 
confraternities? Not any of these. The entire for- 
tune of Francis Bonaccioli was bequeathed to his own 
soul; and to guard the interests of this legatee, as has 
been said, the sole executor was the Archbishop of 
Ferrara ! ' 

Few men in the States of the Church durst enter the 
lists against an archbishop, or expose in court the arts 
that turn a death in a family into a robbery as well as 
a bereavement. But Professor Bonaccioli was old, the 
prize was immense, and his courage was uncommon. 
Into court he went, to contest the will on five grounds : 
1. The total incapacity of the deceased to devise; 2. 
Undue influence; 3. Violation of the essential forms of 
a will, even to want of legal execution ; 4. Falsifica- 
tion; 5. Want of a specific and tangible person or ob- 
ject as legatee. 

The proofs of fraud adduced were so overwhelming 
that public opinion cried aloud, and even the court of 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME, 381 

the Bota Bommia twice gave it in favor of the plaintiff. 
It would have done so a third time, but this was pre- 
vented by changing the judges. 

It became known that the plaintiff had new and 
crushing evidence to produce against the archbishop ; 
and then the government itself resolved to stop the 
course of a man who, "with a courage not so properly 
called rare, as positively unique, dared, in a time when 
no one else would, to unmask before the astonished 
world the infamous practices adopted in the name of 
the Church ; the atrocious persecutions, the abuse of 
excommunication, the solemn perjuries, the bribery of 
witnesses and penmen, and the falsifications in hund- 
reds of documents." This had already gone too far, 
and it must cease; but attention was so thoroughly 
awake, that it could not be terminated by violent 
means. Professor Bonaccioli was therefore pressed to 
come to Rome, with flattering promises that the Pope 
himself would become arbitrator, and settle the matter 
by an equitable compromise. He yielded ; and received 
the Pope's personal assurance that he would arrange 
the matter, if it was left in his hands. The subject com- 
mitted his fortune to the honor of the sovereign. 

For seven months he was kept in Rome, while " the 
first persons in the state" exhausted all their efforts to 
cajole, menace, and deceive him. On pretext of his 
holding some of the property, legal proceedings were 
instituted against him. " A chain of snares, a multitude 
of stratagems fit to turn the head of any one," resulted 



382 ITALY IK TEANSITION. 

in a papal rescript, dated September 4tli5 1858, by whicli 
the sovereign who had made himself voluntary arbitra- 
tor between the archbishop and the lawful heir, award- 
ed to the latter a few thousand scudi, scarcely enough 
to refund the expenses of his four years' litigation. 

The subject at once presented himself before the sov- 
ereign, delivered in his protest and appeal, and received 
a promise of farther compensation after a time. This 
promise was not kept ; and on June 3d, 1859, the pro- 
fessor once more presented his complaint. 

A few days after Ferrara was free. The new gov- 
ernment appointed a board for the administration of 
charities. The Bonaccioli estate was placed in its 
hands ; and it proved that the archbishop had, natural- 
ly enough, held himself to be " plenipotentiary repre- 
sentative of the soul, and free disposer of the estate, 
without being bound to account to any one." To this 
board the plaintiff in the long-pending suit applied ; 
and it is from the legal document, the "bill" put into 
court, that this narrative is taken. Let us hope that, 
ere now, the property has returned to honest hands.* 

One of the great arguments for the support of the 
temporal power of the Pope is, that he may preserve 
his independence. In what did this consist during the 
ten years of restoration ? These volumes run over with 
proof that, from the day the Austrians entered his terri- 
tory until the day they left, he had no subjects, if that 
* «' Documents," vol. i., p. 488. 



PAPAL governme:^ in bome. 383 

word means persons whose obedience a prince com- 
mands, either from loyalty or fear. The people were 
entirely under the power of foreign authorities, their 
native government having scarcely any office but that 
of collector of taxes, imprisoner, and executioner. 

In the volumes before us, the index of documents 
showing the subjection of the pontifical government to 
the Austrians takes up four very large pages, and the 
contents are exceedingly curious, demonstrating an ab- 
dication of the chief functions of government in favor 
of a foreign power. For instance, a single troop of 
pontifical soldiers having been placed in Forli, without 
express sanction from the Austrians, the General Nobili 
severely reproves Monsignor Bedini, whose patience 
hardly bears it ; and he replies, that probably the Min- 
ister of War (Antonelli) will be surprised, as it was 
done in simple fulfillment of his orders ; at the same 
time he shows his servility by thanking the general for 
the courtesy of his note. Cardinal Antonelli replies to 
Bedini that " the facts represented to him are much to 
be lamented," and feels keenly how far all this dis- 
credits the Pope's authority, and gives advantage to 
his enemies. But, he says, " In the present circum- 
stances there is no other means of carrying on afiairs ; 
for, although the sovereign is in the country, the mili- 
tary force is a foreign one," and therefore he can only 
instruct Bedini " to do every thing in concert with the 
Austrian military authorities," Avhich means that he do 
nothing without their leave.* 

* ** Documents," vol. i., p. Ixxii. 



384 ITALY IN TEAKSITION. 

It soon proved that the Austrian generals were not 
content with the substance of power, but assumed what 
was more grating to their ecclesiastical coadjutors, its 
forms and titles. " General Gortzkowski," writes the 
unhappy Bedini, " besides his title of commandant, as- 
sumes that of civil and military governor. I thought 
the time had come to omit this in official correspond- 
ence, and therefore for some weeks have not used it. 
But very soon Count Nobili reclaimed, and laid orders 
upon me to repair this irregularity."* 

An officer in the pontifical army is imprisoned by the 
Austrians, and after some time set at liberty ; and here 
are the documents in which his superiors write to one 
another, to ask what could be the cause of his arrest, it 
being evident that the " civil and military governors" 
had not thought it worth while to give them any in- 
formation on the subject. The Bishop of Cesena, hav- 
ing had his house broken into and robbed, applies to 
the Austrians for a guard, but is summarily told that he 
can have none. In the city of Forli a military courier 
was robbed ; the Austrians at once laid upon the town 
a mulct of 3000 crowns, and the pontifical government 
stands by. 

They even went so far as to find fault with the Coun- 
cil of Censure itself; audit would seem that it objected 
to be interfered with ; for General Gravert replies to 
the legate that his right to demand from the Council 
of Censure a report as to any journals distributed in 
* "Documents," vol. i., p. 272. 



PAPAL GOVEENMENT IN EOME. 385 

the legations rests upon the instructions of the 26th of 
May, 1849. We shall now give the exact words of a 
pontifical legate. The Austrian authority " avails it- 
self of its attribute of civil government to commit acts 
which are in direct contradiction to the pontifical au- 
thority, and which bring shame and humiliation upon 
it." 

On their side, an Austrian says, " In my position of 
civil and military governor, I can not forego any ar- 
rangement which I consider necessary as a measure of 
police, in spite of the prohibition of the minister at 
Rome, to whom I am not responsible."* This referred 
to a point upon which the pontifical authorities were 
very tender, as directly affecting the observances of the 
Church. They had ordered that the theatre at Bo- 
logna, as all in the pontifical states, should be closed 
during Lent ; but the general wanted his soldiers to be 
amused, and flies in the face not only of the legate him- 
self, but of the government of Rome. 

Again we have these words : " Your most reverend 
excellency will not fail to see in the action of the im- 
perial and royal commander a decided arrogation of 
political power : now it is no longer a request, but a 
decree, and a decree that becomes so much more hurt- 
ful to the representatives of the pontifical authority, as 
it discredits us in the eyes of the people." All that 
poor Antonelli can reply to these complaints is, that he 
" reserves to himself the right to look into the matter." 
* **Documents>'^ vol. i., p. 476. 

R 



386 ITALY IN TEANSITION. 

Finally, upon a simple rumor that the National Guard 
still exist in the city of Cesena, the Austrians quarter a 
division of soldiers upon the town, and force them to 
support it by payment of money, and arrest the gov- 
ernor.* 

These facts are but samples of multitudes which teem 
all through these volumes, showing that every vestige 
or independence had been given up, and that nothing 
remained but the pontifical arms displayed over public 
oflSces, the right of levying taxes, and administering the 
penal law. 

But it might be supposed that at least full independ- 
ence in spiritual matters was obtained at the great 
price of this humiliation in temporal ones. Even that, 
however, was not the case. When the legate, wearied 
to death with the outcries of the people, complained to 
the Austrians that the farmers, not being allowed to 
keep arms, were continually subject to pillage and ruin, 
the reply of the general was characteristic : "The most 
eminent Cardinal of Imola wishes to attribute the rob- 
beries to the most salutary measure of general disarm- 
ing, but does not reflect on the very grave responsibili- 
ty that weighs on his clergy for the neglect of moral 
and religious education in a generation that contains so 
many germs of corruption and of crime." This coarse 
rebuke was dated the 14th of August, 1849; and only 
three years before, as the general must have known 
very well, the most eminent Cardinal of Imola was not 
* ''Documents," vol. i., p. 257. 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 387 

the dignitary he thus scolded, but no other person than 
Pio ISTono himself, who had long been in charge of that 
diocese, and upon whom, if on any one, must rest the 
blame of having brought up the people in the state of 
corruption of which the general complains.* 

But not only were the high clerical powers exposed 
to these rebuffs, they were obliged to sell for bayonets 
many of their most cherished spiritual rights. The im- 
munity of the priests from civil and military courts is 
one of the first of all the privileges of Rome held with 
mortal tenacity. This was surrendered; and Hugo 
Bassi, a liberal priest, was shot by the Austrians imme- 
diately upon his arrest. When the Archbishop of Bo- 
logna was about to issue his Pastoral — as archbishops 
are fond of doing — the Austrian general declared that 
no prelates could print holy counsels, pastorals, or any 
thing else, without the ^placet of their imperial protect- 
ors. And then, what we should have thought utterly 
unendurable by Roman ecclesiastics, it is decreed that 
no religious procession shall be allowed until authority 
has first been obtained from the Austrian police. Any 
one who refers to vol. i., p. 780, will find these incredible 
facts confirmed. 

It is not to be supposed that in this state of things 
the dignitaries of the Church were content and patient. 
They reclaim with bitterness against what they call 
" the more than despotic" interference of the Austrians; 
but it is to be said, with sorrow for human nature, that 
* ** Documents," voL i., p. Ixxxi. 



388 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

all their indignation is against acts impairing their own 
dignity and authority. No sign of protests as to the 
barbarities inflicted upon their people ; on the contrary, 
whatever is to be done in the way of torture or judicial 
murder, they seem always too ready to be servants and 
helpers. In fact, it is the Austrians who, in not a few 
cases, interfere to moderate the proceedings of the 
priests. The case of the wife of Garibaldi, already 
given, is one in point. The Governor of S. Arcangelo 
had arrested a certain Francis Venturi, and endeavored 
to prove him guilty, and handed him over to the Aus- 
trian court-martial ; but " this imperial and royal gov- 
ernment, civil and military, orders that he shall be set 
at liberty instantly." In the town of Jesi, the people 
wished to celebrate a solemn mass for the souls of those 
who had fallen fighting for their country at Vicenza. 
The papal government took this as a crime against the 
state. Many were punished with the " cudgel," not a 
few with fines. Among the rest, three were prosecuted 
who had not even been in the town on that day. The 
Austrian commandant wrote a letter rebuking the gov- 
ernment, and ordered that the fines collected should be 
restored.* 

General Marziani found in the fort of Urbino some 
prisoners, who were reported as under the jurisdiction 
of the civil and military government, while the fact was 
that they had been committed for ofienses long past. 
He refused to prosecute them ; and he adds, that " per- 
* <* Documents, "vol. ii., p. 610, 611. 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 389 

sons arrested for precaution ought not to be kept iu 
prison forever." 

There was a certain Louis Gardella, regarding whom 
one of these documents says, very coolly, that the Aus- 
trians, by violence, and by threatening him with death, 
had wrung from him a promise to inform, within a 
month, against his brother-in-law, where they were and 
what they were doing ; that he had applied to them 
(the papal delegates) to be released from this " cruel 
engagement" on the 3d of August, 1850; but as they 
had taken the necessary measures with the Austrian 
commandant, they had immediately proceeded to arrest 
him.* 

So far did it go that the papal government could not 
deliver passports to its own subjects — a favor, by the 
way, they were very slow to accord — without having 
them signed by the Austrian police, and without the 
applicant being obliged to present himself personally at 
their office for that purpose. 

What was perhaps the worst of all was, that when 
the legate issued his proclamation regulating the diver- 
sions of the Carnival, he had a sharp letter from the 
Austrian general, telling him that though nothing par- 
ticular in this document could be objected to, he ought 
not to have issued any such thing without consulting 
him. Smarting under this, he is reduced to complain 
that the theatre is kept open even in Holy Week with- 
out as much as asking his leave, although he had fonn- 
* " Documents," vol, ii., p. 590. 



390 ITALY IK TRANSITION. 

ally commanded that it should be closed all through 
Lent. 

At present his Holiness is making efforts to procure 
soldiers from different parts of the world. The editor's 
index of the complaints in these books by different leg- 
ates, delegates, governors, and so on, of the animosity 
of the people to the government, and the impossibility 
of getting them to serve it in any capacity, occupies 
about three pages. One high official even declares 
that, not from love of the Austrians, but simply from 
hatred of the papal power, the people would sooner 
choose to be under Austria itself than under the rule of 
the priests. Another says that the soldiers are not to 
be trusted. Another goes so far as to say that the 
whole of the present generation is hopelessly lost ; and 
yet another does not hesitate to declare that even of 
the governors themselves he has any thing but a good 
opinion. And most sorrowful of all. Colonel Freddi 
begins at last to have doubts of the Austrians, for in 
the public houses of Ancona they may be heard singing 
Liberal songs. Under these circumstances, the most 
reverend Minister of War has very great difficulty in 
getting soldiers ; in fact, he is told plainly that there is 
no such thing as any papal force to be depended upon. 
Although in Forli a depot of enlistment is opened, with 
high inducements of pay, diet, and bounty, only two en- 
roll themselves. Antonelli is willing to have soldiers 
even as old as thirty-six years of age. He makes sev- 
eral provisions for rendering enlistment easier, and con- 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 391 

eludes thus : " Finally, as to moral character, I need not 
add that in no case can a certificate of unexceptionable 
political conduct be dispensed with ; but as to criminal 
conduct, it will be enough if he has not been a galley- 
slave, or undergone similar disgraceful sentences." 

This being the state of the soldier market among the 
Pope's own subjects, it is not to be wondered at that he 
should look for them elsewhere, knowing that far away 
" Catholic" aSection is considerably warmer than near- 
er home ; for while in Cesena the corporation refuse to 
celebrate the anniversary of his coronation, in Ireland 
his health is sometimes drunk before that of the queen. 

The sort of reasoning with which the Jesuits satisfy 
their tender consciences that it is lawful for the "Chief 
Shepherd" to bring armed bands from any remote coun- 
try whence he can allure them, to plunge bayonets or 
shoot bullets into his near neighbors, may be judged by 
the opening of an article in a late number of the ^^ Civil' 
ta Cattolica:^'' 

"If, then," says the reverend writer, "the pontiff may 
not defend his temporal power with spiritual arms, as 
those worthies would have it, to whom we replied in 
the first article of our last number, can he at least de- 
fend it with temporal arms ? In this case the means 
will be harmonious, and would resemble that which is 
done by all the powers in the world, and, indeed, by all 
living creatures, which, when assailed, defend themselves 
as they are able by the imperious instinct of self-preser- 
vation. But ' No,' reply those wiseacres. ' What do 



392 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

you think — does it not ill become the vicar of the God 
of love to nse earthly arms ? For him to Hft up the 
hand ought to be for the single purpose of blessing and 
of pardoning ; and then if the civil sovereignty of the 
Pope is appointed for a spiritual end, as its defenders 
say, what inconsistency can be greater than this, to use 
material arms for an end which transcends all the limits 
and all the conditions of matter?' And thus we tum- 
ble headlong into that sophism, which would be so con- 
venient for the invaders and usurpers of part of the 
States of the Church, which part they would hope is an 
earnest of the rest. The sophism is this — that the pon- 
tiff can not use either spiritual arms or temporal ones 
to preserve for the Church its patrimony — neither canon 
law nor cannon shot {ne canoni ne cannoni). It there- 
fore must be resigned without the shadow of an obsta- 
cle to the first Count Camillo (Cavour) who, by dint of 
foxy cunning and shameless effrontery, supported by 
despotic foreign abettors, will take in hand to grasp it. 
But they count without their host. The Catholic world 
was never less disposed than at this moment to be 
caught by such fibs. So far from it being the case, that 
neither spiritual nor temporal arms can be used for de- 
fending the patrimony of the Church, it is precisely the 
reverse ; for both one and the other very well can, and 
in certain circumstances ought to be employed." 

This amiable article is entitled " Temporal Arms for 
the Defense of the Spiritual Power," and was pubHshed 
on the 19 th of May, in this present year, in the pontifical 
city. 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN BiJME. 393 

As a final proof of the level to which the Pope stoop- 
ed, he had no power to refuse, when it was demanded 
for his beloved Austrians, an indulgence against which 
the government whereof he claims to be the alter Ego 
has inscribed in the great book of its working laws a 
dolorous penalty, too well known in the hospitals of Eu- 
rope. The Pope, with paternal care, undertakes to aid 
the Austrians in evading that penalty, and the corpora- 
tion of Bologna was ordered to defray the expense of 
securing medical skill for that end. They refused to 
do so. The government insisted ; the corporation was 
sturdy ; and a long correspondence was closed by the 
following document, which we shall give with all its 
marks, from page 487 of the first volume : 

"3.788. N. 49.664. 

"Most illustrious and most reverend Sir, — 

" The HoHness of our Lord has graciously deigned 
to appoint Doctor Peter Zuola as first fiscal surgeon of 
Bologna, with a monthly pay of fifteen crowns ; and, as 
his substitute. Doctor Julius Borzaghi, with the pay of 
twelve crowns, on condition that both one and the oth- 
er shall gratuitously attend to the cure of women of bad 
life ; the extra allowance which they have hitherto had 
for that purpose ceasing. 

" I communicate to you, most illustrious sir, this gra- 
cious act of the sovereign will for your guidance, and 
send you the official note of nomination, that you may 
promptly have it delivered. 

R2 



394 ^TALY IN TRANSITION. 

" And I beg to subscribe myself, with sincere esteem 
of yom- most illustrious and most reverend lordship, the 
devoted servant, 

"Maetel, Minister of the Interior, 

" Kome, April 22d, 1857." 

Directed to "Monsignor the Apostolic Commissioner 
of Bologna." 

The words "holy," "sacred," and "holiness" are sad- 
ly dragged through the mire at Rome ; and who will 
fail to reflect on the easy and unembarrassed manner in 
which the " Holiness of our Lord" is coupled with an 
effort to enable sinners to sin on with impunity ? 

We have given enough under this head to show that, 
whatever advantages the Pope may have derived from 
his kingly position during the last ten years, indepen- 
dence in temporal, spiritual, or moral questions was not 
one of them. 

In the second volume are the following lists : 

Those condemned to death and the galleys, 23 pages. 

Political exiles, emigrants, and recusants, 12 pages. 

Persons shot in the city of Bologna, 6 pages, 186 
names. 

Persons sentenced in Bologna to be shot, but exe- 
cuted elsewhere, 3 pages, 90 names. 

Police notes on persons suspected and politically com- 
promised in Ferrara, 30 pages, 534 name^. 

Persons condemned to death and the galleys, as re- 
corded by political prisoners from memory, in the for- 



PAPAL GOVERrMENT IN ROME. 395 

tress of Paliono, for Caesar Mazzoni, written by him on 
fragments of paper in microscopic characters, 40 pages, 
nearly 3000 names. 

Members of the Constituent Assembly exiled, 3 pages. 

Persons sent out of the state, and not permitted to 
return without previous leave of the police, 5 pages. 

The effect of this system of government upon the 
minds of the people is stated in addresses which were 
presented to the Pope himself when, in the year 1857, 
he made the celebrated " progress" through his states, 
which, at the time, the " Journal of Rome" paraded be- 
fore the world as one continual ovation, proving the 
love and honor with which the pontiff was regarded by 
his subjects. In July of that year the corporation of 
Ravenna represented matters as follows : 

" Most blessed Father, 
" Your august presence in any province of the state 
must raise in the soul of your subjects the most flatter- 
ing hopes. If they had easy access to your august pres- 
ence, or if, at least, they were certain that their petitions 
would not be concealed by those who surround you, 
you would be made clearly to see the grave wants that 
press upon them, and the radical improvements which 
they permit themselves to anticipate from the justice of 
the prince and the charity of the high-priest. Laws, 
finances, taxes, municipal affairs, public institutions — all, 
all, demand enfranchisement, regulation, reform. Oh, 
do not be deluded by ephemeral pomps — artificial flat- 



396 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

teries — forced, or rather extorted, by the blood of the 
poor, and always connected with self-interested designs 
of the dishonest, and the adulation of courtiers ! Those 
are not your people, who are anxious to twine for you 
a crown worthy of the first days of your pontificate. 
Wearing it, you will return to Rome with the pride and 
glory of having restored to the papacy a degree of pow- 
er and veneration which is the wish of your admirers, 
and also that of universal Christendom ; and without it, 
what will become of your people, and what will become 
of you in the face of the human race, and of history ?" 

It is seldom a prince hears such language from a cor- 
poration ; but what can we say of the following ? 

"Address feom the People of the Romagna de- 
livered TO THE Pope on the 2d of July, 1857. 

" Your journey in the midst of your people ought to 
procure you that felicity which a good father feels when 
entertained by his own children. Around you all is fes- 
tive, all is joy. But if the corporations did not cover 
our wounds, our miseries, under draperies and gold ; if 
with the sound of the church bells and the roar of can- 
non they did not prevent you from hearing our lament- 
ations ; if they had enough civil courage to tell you our 
necessities, our misfortunes, and to let you know what 
havoc of the persons and property of your subjects is 
committed in the provinces, the tears which you now 
shed from joy would change into a gush of sorrow and 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 397 

compassion. The first days of your pontificate opened 
every generous heart to hope. All Europe applauded 
your first acts. The world itself admired you. It seem- 
ed, for a moment, that the cross of the old pontiffs was 
lifted up by you once more to defend the people against 
the abuses and tyranny of secular princes. In that junc- 
ture you were sublime. But it was a short instant ; and 
from the height in which genius soars you soon descend- 
ed to the level of mediocrity. Alarmed by the pros- 
pect of too grand a future, after having initiated your 
people in a better way, you have endeavored to lead 
them back to the old usages, and to re-establish a state 
of oppression, called, in the vocabulary of the govern- 
ment, ' order.' Whether your conduct can be justified 
by too rapid a movement of the people to realize certain 
ideas, future history will decide. For us, it is enough 
to note the fact that ' order' was restored. The state 
of things that has followed it is certainly unknown to 
you, and we wish to place it under your eyes, and that 
only to make you understand that you deceive yourself 
in imagining your people to be happy with the present 
political and financial administration. 

"Holy Father, in the year 1850, after some months — 
— for you of trial — you accomplished your return to 
Rome, and re-established your government, with all its 
forms, because you had been preceded by the French, 
Austrian, and Spanish armies, which had been obliged 
to give proof of their prowess. Tour desire, your pride 
was gratified ; but how many misfortunes rained down 



398 ITALY i:Nr transition. 

upon your people on the arrival of these foreign forces ! 
How many horrors ! Perhaps all were committed 
without your knowledge; but all in your name, holy 
father ! 

" Martial law was declared in all our cities, and shoot- 
ing, and beating with the stick, without distinction of 
age, became the order of the day. Informers for gain, 
and informers from party spirit, rose up every where, 
and every where victims fell. The ' cudgel' became a 
remedy for all evils. Confessions were wrung, by dint 
of blows, equally from the alleged political offender, the 
assassin, and the thief; and the innocent were some- 
times obliged to bear the penalty of the guilty, when 
they had escaped by flight. Commissions, formed of 
men not the most respectable in society, filled the pris- 
ons with youth ; and using the vilest means, they sought 
in the proceedings, not truth, but, by the most refined 
persecutions, to give formal proof of their attachment 
to the government, whence they might derive a title to 
lucrative promotion. Anonymous information against 
a simple citizen was sufficient to throw him into the 
depths of a prison. The witnesses, always threatened 
with the galleys and with the beastly cudgel, most fre- 
quently deposed to things that in their consciences they 
regarded as calumnies, and for which they wejDt in se- 
cret. It appeared that the object was not to discover 
criminals, but rather to satiate the thirst of a party for 
blood. All this in your name, holy father ! 

" Then came the sentences of the (High Court of) 



PAPAL GOVEENMENT IN ROME. 899 

Consulta^ dictated so much by caprice that it would be 
difficult to say which was most evident, ignorance of 
facts or cruelty. And it is a grievous thing to hear 
that a body of judges, a moral corps, the motto of which 
ought to be ' impartiality,' condemns to the galleys and 
to death with a levity that appalls ; for, generally speak- 
ing, no proof of guilt is manifest in their sentences, by 
which there is not a city that has not had torn from it 
some precious citizen ; and, not to speak of all, Sene- 
gaglia, your own dear native town, still shudders when 
it calls to mind the guilty shooting of her most innocent 
and most virtuous Jerome Simonelli; and all this in 
your name, holy father ! 

" Further, the disarming of all the citizens, even in 
the rural districts, was the natural consequence of mar- 
tial law, through which every one hastened to surrender 
his defensive arms at the different offices of police, to 
avoid being sent to the galleys, or being shot, as hap* 
pened to those unhappy persons who showed reluctance 
to obey the supreme command. All, both in town and 
country, being disarmed, the field was clear for robbers 
and assassins to haunt the highways with impunity, and 
without the least risk of being disturbed. This part of 
Italy, to the astonishment of the world, affords the mis- 
erable sight of organized bands of brigands, who took 
possession of cities and villages, and who insulted in ev- 
ery way the citizens, and even laid enormous contribu- 
tions upon conquered towns. The striking point is, 
that all this took place in a state of only three millions 



400 ITALY IN TRANSITION. 

of people, where the armies of the two most formidable 
nations in the world were quartered for the establish- 
ment of order and general tranquiUity. But probably 
you were told that all these crimes were nothing more 
that a little pocket-picking. What farther shall we say 
of the ordinary civil and military courts, grown more 
immoral than usual through the misery of the times ? 
In these the poor, without patronage, always fall by 
the force of gold, if opposed by the rich. In these the 
barbarous inquisitorial proceedings, often united to ig- 
norance, and sometimes to corruption of the functiona- 
ries, leave miserable creatures to waste for an indefinite 
time in unhealthy prisons before they can see their 
lot decided. For the sake of brevity, we shall not 
enumerate all the abuses, all the wrongs, to which are 
abandoned the people of the little villages left at the 
discretion of some incapable governor, or of an officer 
of police, who bears himself as a general ; and all these 
abominations you are ignorant of! 

" But do not imagine, holy father, that the series of 
miseries which afflicts your subjects ends here. Add to 
all that has been said, as its conclusion, the immense 
financial deficit, the exorbitant taxes of every kind that 
are paid for the support of foreign troops and for the 
boundless luxury of the court of Rome and her treas- 
ury. This ill-regulated outlay has so wasted the small 
means of the greater number of the citizens, that noth- 
ing remains to them but a future of distressing poverty. 
The revenues raised are certainly not according to the 



PAPAL GOVERI^MENT IN KOME. 401 

wants of the state, but according to the extravagance 
of a very bad administration. 

"And it is truly extravagance to maintain, in a state 
of three millions, French, Austrian, Spanish, and papal 
armies ; nor can it be believed that the preservation of 
order in so small a state should require such an array 
of force, for then it would be confessed that the gov- 
ernment had so fallen into contempt by its continual 
despotism that it could not possibly exist without a 
pedestal of bayonets. Woe to that government which 
does not maintain itself by influence and persuasion, 
but rests only upon force, in days when civilization has 
decreed that at any cost the right of the strong shall no 
longer prevail against reason ! After all that has been 
laid before you, think within yourself, oh holy father, if 
a sovereign, passing through his states where so many 
wrongs take place, where thousands and thousands of 
mothers are weeping for their sons in exile, in dungeons, 
or dead by the hands of the executioner — think within 
yourself if he can be well received, and if the demon- 
strations which have the appearance of festivity are not 
rather the effect of fear. Do not delude yourself, oh 
holy father ; and reflect that if it ill becomes a secular 
prince to have a realm in which the subjects are gov- 
erned like beasts of burden, in which the caprice and 
will of man are always substituted for law and reason, 
much worse is it if this prince is the successor of Peter, 
the head of that religion which has for motto 'Equality, 
love and pardon.' Keflect, and set matters right." 



402 ITALY IN TRANSITIO^q-. 

After the general corruption of Christianity East and 
West by the adoption of heathen or semi-heathen prac- 
tices from the imperfectly Christianized multitudes who 
had flocked into the ranks of the Church subsequent to 
her public triumph in the empire, two powers arose to 
dominate over the enfeebled Christians. The one re- 
tained the Christian doctrines, adhered to the corrupt 
practices, claimed chiefly spiritual domination, and, 
throwing the Christian Scriptures into the shade, adopt- 
ed a system of impressing the senses, holding the con- 
science by priestly j)ower, and gradually supplanting 
and overlaying the old truths by adding new doctrines. 
The other restored, as against both pagan and Christian 
idolatry, many of the primitive forms of Christianity ; 
rejected its cardinal doctrines ; without disowning, sup- 
planted its Scriptures ; based its religious hold on a 
Book and on the intellect, aided by passion ; and aimed 
at temporal dominion. Both used the sword ; they 
flourished around the Mediterranean, dividing its shores 
between them, and thence extending the one West, the 
other East. Each took, as its chief seat, one of the 
capitals of the Roman empire. Both prepared the way 
for their social ruin by undermining the Christian fami- 
ly institute, the one adopting the pagan system of ce- 
libacy, the other that of polygamy. By the former, 
Rome has filled Italy in Christian times with the un- 
natural vice of heathen countries ; by the latter, Islam 
has wasted its settled nations. "Turkey is perishing 
for want of Turks," Rome for want of Romans ; and all 



PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 403 

Romish nations that would preserve their strength have 
been obUged so far to learn from Reformed Christianity 
as to restrain the conventual abuses. 

The decay of these systems has been by opposite 
causes, as their development was by opposite tenden- 
cies. Islam has lost territory, but held fast the opiniod 
of its own people. Rome lost its strongest races by 
the revolt of opinion. Both have now long been de- 
pendent on foreign support ; but, in the case of the sul- 
tan, it is to protect him from the aggression of neigh- 
boring states, or the uprising of conquered races ; with 
the Pope, it is to sustain him against his own. The 
former holds his capital, and governs within his realm ; 
the latter exists only by force of alien armies bearing 
down his own people. 

A doom overhangs them both. Islam sees all her 
frontiers falling in, Rome her centre heaving beneath 
her : humanity, sighing under the feet of both, does not 
ask, "Will they fall?" but "When?" Freedom, edu- 
cation, virtue, domestic comfort, commerce, science, and 
patriotism, all the forms owned by the common consent 
of mankind as the good angels, attendants of true re- 
ligion, cry aloud for their downfall; and only three 
forms shrink at the prospect — tyranny, ignorance, and 
superstition. 



APPENDIX. 



A, page 101. 

The Wife of Garibaldi, 

(See " Documents, " vol. ii., p. 608-610.) 

N. 3454: P. R. 

Pontifical Government Provincial Police-office, Ravenna. 

Most reverend Excellency, 

In my humble communication of the 12th instant, bearing the 
same number, I submitted to your excellency that, by means of the 
inquiries made by the police and by confidential persons secretly 
posted about, I have arrived at a clear knowledge of the facts re- 
specting the unknown body of a woman. There is no longer any 
doubt that the body is that of the woman who followed Garibaldi. 
She was brought dying, on a phaeton, by Garibaldi himself, to the 
farm-house of the brothers Ravaglia, bailiffs of the Marquis Guicci- 
oli on one of his estates at Mandriole. The woman was suffering 
from pernicious fever, as it was expressed by Doctor Nannini of S. 
Alberto, who was casually present when they arrived, and felt her 
pulse. Carried into a chamber and laid on a bed, the assistance of 
a glass of water was brought to her ; but she had scarcely imbibed a 
few drops when she ceased to live. Garibaldi was present, and broke 
out into bursts of inconsolable grief for such a misfortune, and short- 
ly after took to flight, charging the family to give the body honor- 
able burial. These facts occurred on the 4th instant, toward even- 
ing, in the presence of more than twenty persons, the laborers being 
assembled to receive their week's wages. 

I at once sent police to arrest the brothers Ravaglia, which has 
been accomplished, and the court is preparing the indictment. It is 
already ascertained that the above-named farmers, seized with fear 
of the grave responsibility to which they were exposed, for the mo- 
mentary shelter given to Garibaldi, and for the death of his wife oc- 



406 APPENDIX. 

curring in their house, adopted the plan of hiding it, and hence 
buried the body in the fields. 

It will be my duty to inform you of the result of the trial, and, in 
the mean time, with perfect esteem and profound respect, I remain 
your most reverend excellency's most deroted and obliged servant, 

A. LovATELLi, Delegate. 
Eavenna, August 15th, 1849. 
To S. E. R. Mons. Comm. Extraordinary, Bologna. 

N. 1076—576. 
From the Imperial and Royal Civil and Military Government, 

Discharge op the Brothers Eayaglia from under Arrest. 

From the judicial proceedings recorded by the civil and criminal 
court of Ravenna against the brothers Stephen and Joseph Ravaglia, 
of Mandriole, accused of killing the wife of Garibaldi, we gather that 
the suit is justly suspended as to this charge ; and considering that 
the momentary reception accorded to the fugitive husband and wife 
Garibaldi, in the house of the Ravaglias, from a sense of humanity, 
took place before the publication of the notice of August 5th, this 
can not be regarded as at all affecting the act in question. 

Therefore better to respond to your valued communication of the 
3d, M. A. N. 560, in which you request me to expedite this affair, I 
directly order the signor delegate of Ravenna instantly to discharge 
the brothers Ravaglia from prison. 

I return the above-named judicial proceedings, and beg to assure 
you of my esteem and consideration. 

In the name of the governor, Marziani. 

Bologna, September 5th, 1849. 
To S, E, K, Mons, Gr. Bedini, Commissioner Extraordinary, Bologna. 



B, page 125. 

The Conforteria of the Ferrara Case, 

(See ^^ Documents," vol. ii., p. 539-545.) 

Conforteria di Luigi Parmeggiani in Cittadella, la notte delli 15 alii 
16 Marzo, 1853. 
Il dopo desinare del giorno 15 Marzo, 1853, li tre confortatori des- 
tinati da S. E. il sig. governatore si portarono alia casa del Rev. Sig. 
Arciprete Presidente alle ore 4 e mezza pomeridiane. Mezz' ora 
dopo entrarono in carrozza e furono condotti in Fortezza, Smonta- 



APPENDIX. 407 

rono sotto il loggiato di guardia e si misero a sedere su delle panche 
e vi passarono un' ora. Yenne un capitano che parlava egregia- 
mente F Italiano, li condusse in una camera di ricevimento, li servi 
di caffe, e li prego di aspettare I'uditore che pranzava all' Europa. 
Dopo r ave Maria furono ricondotti nel loggiato come sopra, ed as- 
pettarono ancora tin' ora, perche la moglie del succi urlava dispera- 
tamente, ne voleva partirsi dalla camera del marito, e quella del Par- 
meggiani presa da convulsioni impazzi, bestemmiando orribilmente. 
Queste infelici seppero la fatale destinazione dei loro consorti dalle 
loro bocche. 

II Kev. Presidente Guitti, e li tre confortatori entrarono nella ca- 
mera del succi : stava in piedi a testa scoperta, guard ato a vista da 
cinque soldati, armati di fucile. II paziente non era legato, ma tutto 
sciolto. Gli dissero come uno di loro era venuto a tenergli compag- 
nia, a piangere con lui, a riconciliarlo con Dio : scegliesse. Succi 
disse in tuono alto, * * lo accetto tutti ; ma poiche io sono il piu vec- 
chio dei tre disgraziati, scegliero il confessore piu vecchio." Allora 
il M. Arciprete, gettandogli le braccia al collo, e baciandolo in fronte, 
disse, ''Son io." Ma soggiunse il paziente: "Prima voglio fare 
un poco di testamento, e dire che la conjessione, e deposizione in is- 
critto che ho fatto alia commissione militaire, mi e stata estorta colla 
violenza, colla panca, col bastone, e colle catene : ne minacciavano solo, 
ma hattevano, e se non si voleva morire sotto iljlagello, hisognava dire 
quello che essi volevano/^ 

Passarono dal D. Malagutti. Come li vidde si gitto in ginocchio 
piangendo dirottamente, bacio a tutti la mano, e disse : ' ' Sia rin- 
graziato iddio che veggo un sacerdote in queste mie angustie che 
mi opprimono dalle ore undici antimeridiane :" si alzo e continuo: 
"Io voglio confessare tutti li miei peccati, e dirli che confido tanto 
nella misericordia di Dio, che mi pare sino peccare di presunzione. 
E sappiano che we' miei costituti ho dovuto dire quello che essi voleva- 
no ; che ho sofferto una tortura orribile ; che mi hanno cagionato una 
emmoragia di sangue . . . stiano tutti con me, non mi abbandonino." 
Quando gli dissero che scegliesse, disse, "II mio compagno di scuo- 
la d'allora, Don Luigi Zuffi." 

Passarono dal Parmeggiani. Si alzo da sedere : tenne il cappello 
in testa e disse, "Sono venuti per confessarmi? io sono innocente ; 
io mi voglio confessare in pubblico, alia presenza della commissione, 
e dire che quello che ho detto e scritto mi e stato estorto con dimande 
suggestive^ colle catene, lasciandomi un mese intero incatenato giorno e 



408 APPENDIX. 

notte ; col bastone, per cui ho dovuto essere portato alb spedale delle 
Martiriy e starvi diciotto giorni." Gli si disse che scegliesse uno dei 
tre : li guardo tutti in volto, e, conoscendone uno, disse piangendo, 
'*Lei padre, lei che ha aruto moglie e figli, lei, che piu facilmente 
compatira un padre afflittissimo, che lascia la moglie, e due figlie da 
marito nella miseria;" e presolo con forza per la mano, se lo fece 
sedere suUa sua panca. 

Parmeggiani era preso da una forte convulsione e piangeva. Bewe 
acqua fresca e caffe tutta notte : voile sempre accesa la stufa. Non 
tacque mai, parlo sempre dell' ingiusto ed iniquo modo di cercare la 
veritd coi tormenti sotto dei quali mentisce il forte, ed il debole, Scrisse 
una lettera a sua moglie : fece testamento per li atti Bottonelli. Si 
confessb due volte, e voile piu volte V assoluzione. Lesse le proteste 
deir anima, ebbe V assoluzione pontificia, e Jece tutti li atti del Cristi- 
ano. AUe ore due dopo mezzanotte Parmeggiani disse, *' Saprei pur 
Yolentieri se i miei compagni si sono confessati. Vada a sentire, e 
gli dica che io mi sono confessato, che gli dimando perdono dello 
scandalo dato coi fatti e colle parole, se fossi stato la cagione delle 
loro pene." 

II confortatore ando dal succi : era in letto : si alzo ; ed intesa 
I'ambasciata disse con enfasi, "/o debbo dimandare perdono a lui, che 
Vho sedotto ; e se ci incontreremo prima del supplizio lo prego volermi 
dare il bacio del perdono. " Si era confessato alia sera da M. Guitti. 

Malagutti fumava un sigaro, seduto al letto col suo confortatore, 
e disse d'aver perdonato a tutti, come voleva che Dio perdonasse 
a lui. 

Alle ore sette della mattina 16, Parmeggiani ed il confortatore fu- 
rono fatti discendere neir atrio: trovarono il Dott. Malagutti in 
mezzo ai soldati solo, perche il di lui confortatore diceva la messa in 
Chiesa. II confortatore del Parmeggiani lo prese colla mano sinis- 
tra, perche colla destra teneva il suo paziente. Si baciarono. Nello 
stesso tempo arrive succi, li abbraccio, li bacio tutti due, e gli disse : 
^^ Addio.^^ Si awiarono alia Chiesa dicendo li atti difede. Si pose- 
to in ginocchio a pie dell'altare. Malagutti e Parmeggiani voUero 
nuovamente I'assoluzione. Fecero la santa comunione colli atti pre- 
paratori concomitanti e susseguenti con somma divozione. All' ulti- 
mo evangelio si alzarono in piedi e Malagutti disse forte : *' Quanto 
mi sembra di essere leggiero ! Signore, li anni di vita che mi si tolgo- 
no dateli a mia madre /" e Parmeggiani ripete la esclamazione e disse : 
^'alle miejiglie^'' 



APPEKDIX. 409 

Torno il confortatore dal D. Malagutti, e si awiarono al supplizio ; 
prima succi, poi Parmeggiani, poi Malagutti. Passarono per la pi- 
azza d'arme, per la porta del soccorso, andarono nelli spaldi detti di 
san Giacomo : mezz' ora di cammino in tante giravolte, ed a passo 
lento. Gli si voleva porrc la benda alii occhi. Succi e Parmeggi- 
ani dissero non essere necessario. Parmeggiani s'inginnocchio, uni 
le mani, chiuse gli occhi, dicendo forte Gesu, ec. Un tenente disse 
die era suo dovere fossero bendati, ed un soldato gli mise un fazzo- 
letto bianco essendo in ginocchio, ed altri tre spararono i loro fucili 
nel petto, e nella fronte. Parmeggiani cadde boccone, e non si mosse 
piu. E morto come un martire ! 

Firmato. II Confortatore D. G. P. 
(Note of Commissioners.) — N.B. The letters D. G. P. mean Don 
Giuseppe Poltronieri. This worthy priest, and the others named in 
the above report to the arch-confraternity of the Buona Morte, never 
left the condemned men, so that the facts set forth can not be im- 
pugned by the Austrian or pontifical government, and will remain an 
irrefragable proof of their common barbarity. 

Carlo Aw. Mazzucchi, 
Gaetano D. Dondi, 
Commissioners in Ferrarafor the Investigation of 
Documents on the Pontifical Government, 
Ferrara, December 22d, 1859. 



C, page 147. 

Louis Napoleon, 

(See *^ Documents," vol. i., p. 55-63.) 

Li 24 Giugno, 1846. 

Illustrissimo Signore, 

QuESTA direzione di polizia e venuta a sapere, che nella notte del 

21 corrente arrive a Porretta un giovane forestiere, sconosciuto, ca- 

rico d'armi e di danaro, il quale avendo preso alloggio nella locanda 

condotta da Luigi Ferrari sebbene si facesse chiamare con nome 

finto, venne non pertanto conosciuto da una signora inglese, che abi- 

ta nella locanda medesima per il figlio di Girolamo Bonaparte. Ap- 

pena giunto il suddetto incognito mostro desiderio di vedere e parlare 

col Contino Napoleone Camerata figlio della Principessa Baciocchi, 

c spedita a questo una lettera qui a Bologna, giunse costa precipito- 

samentc verso le ore undici antimeridiane del giorno 22 condotto dal 

s 



410 APPENDIX. 

vetturino Bolognese Battista Golinelli. Alia distanza di un buon 
miglio da Porretta il figlio di Girolamo incontro per la strada pro- 
vinciale il Contino Camerata, che smontato dal legno proseguirono a 
piedi il viaggio fino alia locanda, e trattenutosi a Porretta il resto di 
quella giornata, e la notte successiva, jeri mattina tutti due insieme 
si diressero verso la Toscana sopra un biroccino guidato da un sud- 
dito Toscano, ma accompagnati fino al confine dallo stesso Luigi 
Ferrari. Prima di mettersi in viaggio il Contino Camerata a-vTebbe 
mandato da V. S. il riscontrino del passaporto ritirato nell' entrare 
in questa citta per avere il visto per i bagni di Monte Catini, ma 
sebbene ella si ricusasse partirono entrambi a quella volta stanteche 
I'incognito figlio di Girolamo possedeva piu di un passaporto. La 
comparsa, e presenza sebbene momentanea del suddetto forestiere 
desto gran cicalio nel castello, perche da tutti ritenuto pel principe 
Luigi Napoleone Bonaparte, teste fuggito dal castello di Ham. 

Tutto cio premesso non posso nascondere la mia sorpresa per il si- 
lenzio serbato da V. S. Illustris. su questo importantissimo inci- 
dente, e sopratutto dell' indifferenza da lei usata, e della forza del 
carabinieri di non darsi pensiero di verificare se fosse realmente 
stato il Principe Luigi Napoleone, sul conto del quale non poteva 
ignorare gli ordini del governo partecipati alia S. V. Illustris. col cir- 
colare dispaccio 16 corrente N^. 1199. P. R. di questo Dicastero Po- 
litico. 

Non potendo quindi dubitare della sussistenza delle cose suespresse, 
non posso dispensarmi dal richiedere alia S. V. Illustris. tutti i ne- 
cessarj schiarimenti, occupandosi di proposito delle piu riservate, e 
prudenti verificazioni, e di farmi conoscere il risultato delle di lei in- 
vestigazioni da praticarsi nel modo il piu circospetto, massime presso 
il locandiere Ferrari anche rispetto alle confidenze e discorsi, che il 
suddetto incognito possa avergli fatti, non occultandole essere a mia 
cognizione, che si sarebbe sbilanciato coUo stesso Ferrari, con ardite 
proposizioni riguardo ad un nipote del Ferrari che trovavasi fra i 
condannati politici. 

In attesa di analogo e dettagliato riscontro con distinta stima 
passo a confermarmi, Curzi. 

No. 14 Riservata. 
Illustkissimo Signore, 
Inteso sempre a potere, per quanto e in me a corrispondere effi- 
cacemente alle ordinanze del superiore governo, mi affretto a signifi- 



APPEOTDIX. 411 

carle, che il principe cli cui parla il pregiato foglio della S. V. Illus- 
triss.* 17 corr. N. 697 div. V. P. R, potrebbe benissimo sotto menti=- 
to nome e con passaporto apparentemente regolare, penetrare in 
questo stato, e deluderne la piu attenta vigilanza, giacche quassu non 
e chi lo conosca di persona, ed e noto appena die conta 1' eta di 
quarantatre anni circa, se sono veridici gli Almanacchi che annunzi- 
arono il di lui nascimento. Ad impedire pertanto die non rimanga- 
no vuote di effetto, le viste del governo, e ad impedirlo con ogni mez- 
zo possibile, sara neceasario, die a pronto corso di posta ella si com- 
piaccia di farmi tenere la descrizione del connotati personali di esso- 
lui, dei quali faro prontissima e riservatissima la partecipazione agli 
impiegati politici del confine. 

In questa intelligenza mi rafi'ermo con distinta stima e considera- 
zione. Delia S. V. Illustrissima. 

Porretta, 21 Maggio, 1847. 
Obb. dev. servo, 

Alessandro Zuffi Saveri. 
niustriss. Sig. Col. Cav. Direttore della Polizia Provinciale, Bologna. 

N. 751 P. R. 

Al Sig. Governatore di Porretta. 

Li 27 Maggio, 1847. 
Illustrissimo Signore, 

Non esiste in questo dicastero la indicazione dei connotati personali 
del principe Luigi ISTapoleone Bonaparte, e sarebbe malagevole il po- 
terli con precisione raccogliere. D' altronde essendo costumanza d* 
oggi giorno di tenere ora lunga la barba, ora totalmente rasa, po- 
trebbero essere erronee le indicazioni che quest' ufficio potrebbe pro- 
cacciarsi, e indurre la forza in qualche equivoco pregiudicevole. 

Per la sorveglianza poi che debbe usarsi in cotesto governo relati- 
vamente alia mentovata persona, puo essere facile il risultato piu che 
altrove, atteso il limitato passaggio di forestieri. 

Tanto a riscontro del gradito foglio N, 14 Ris. e passo a confer- 
marmi, II Col. Dirett. CuRzi. 



Page 192. — Judgment of the Court of Bologna, 
Extract from a Sentence of the Tribunal of First Instance of Bologna, 

Pontifical Government. 
In the name of His Holiness Pius IX. , happily reigning. 
Sittings of the days 12th, 13th, and 16th of June, 1856. 



412 APPEISTDIX. 

The Criminal Tribunal and the Civil Tribunal of Fu'st Instance, 
composed of the most illustrious and most excellent^entlemen : 

The Knight-advocate Ferdinando Speroni, President. 

Advocate Vicenzo Bubbiani. 

Advocate Ferdinando Mazza. 

Advocate Lorenzo Donato Liverani. 

To judge the case of the Bolognese people on account of numer- 
ous house-breakings against fifty-nine individuals. 

Sentence. 

Innumerable crimes of every kind have saddened in late years this 
city and province. Thefts, robberies, highway robberies, were of 
constant occurrence, especially in the plains ; and house-breakings, 
which were committed at every hour and in every place, increasing 
in number from day to day, the malefactors becoming more daring 
in proportion as they went unpunished, and the proceedings against 
them remaining incomplete for want of specific grounds. 

A movable column of the police force, intrusted to the command 
of Lieutenant Sirighi, was dispatched to scour the Bolognese plains, 
to discover the authors of these misdeeds, and to place them in the 
hands of justice. 

This measure, excellent in itself, has not, however, succeeded in 
producing all the results that might have been obtained from it, if, 

IN CARRYING IT INTO EFFECT, LAWFUL AND HONEST MEANS HAD BEEN 
ADOPTED, AND IF WE HAD NOT, ON THE CONTRARY, TO DEPLORE SO 
MANY VIOLENT AND FEROCIOUS ACTS, BY WHICH WERE INSTIGATED 
AND EXTORTED FROM MANY OF THE PRISONERS CONFESSIONS OF THEIR 
CRUVIES, WITH ENORMOUS ABUSE, AND MOST OPEN VIOLATION OF THE 

LAWS IN FORCE. Whence it has arisen that on every occasion where 
confessions are presented from accused parties, tainted with such in- 
curable vices, the tribunal, firm in the principle constantly followed, 
has treated them as null and non-existent. 

Charge 7th. 
Whereas, from the character of the accused, from their poverty, 
and from their close relations of friendship, not only do their assert- 
ed spontaneous confessions not corroborate, but, on the contrary, 
such confessions diminish the force of the other evidence ; and be- 
cause these confessions have been retracted by the parties making 
them, and, still more, because there are proofs on the record of the 

INSTIGATIONS AND VIOLENCES USED TO EXTORT THEM. 

Dismissed, &c., &c. 



APPEIfDIX. 413 

Charge 10th. 
One after another, the parties making the confessions have retract- 
ed them almost as soon as they saw themselves out of the prisons and 
the hands of the police, and exclaimed against the instigations and the 
TORMENTS. Nor did they fail in proof of these. Evidence, of what- 
soever sort, issuing from such an impure source, loses its efficiency. 

Charge 11th. 

Notwithstanding this, to hold them guilty of this crime, there ex- 
ists in reality no other ground besides their own confessions, which 
they afterward retracted, and which, on the record, are proved to 
have been instigated and extorted by force of beatings and 
torments. Every one can see what value such proofs merit. 

Dismissed, &c. 

Charge 14th. 

Also Facchini and Bianchi at first made confession of theft, per- 
fectly in accord with that of Mignani ; but these confessions, al- 
though verified in all their parts, have no value, there being strong 
grounds for believing that they were extorted by beatings, as the 
parties protested when they retracted them. 

Dismissed, &q. 

Charge 16th. 
There are doubtless upon the process such professions, but isolated, 
and, what is worse, afterward retracted by the parties making them. 
Besides, they have been extorted by means of instigations, and 
WITH BEATINGS, as has been established, and are therefore unfit to 
furnish arguments of proof to their disadvantage. 

Charge 21st. 
With respect to Cavazza, there is no charge against him beyond 
his miserable condition and his bad character, his own confession not 
meriting any value, inasmuch as it has been retracted by him, and 

BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN FORCIBLY EXTORTED BY THE POLICE BY MEANS 

OF TORTURE, as appears on the record. 
Dismissed, &c. 

Here follow the signatures — F. Speroni, President, 

V. BuBBiANi, Judge, 



T. Mazza, Judge, 
L. LiVERANi, Judge, 
K. Magnani, Chancellor, 



\ 



414 APPENDIX. 

D, p. 199. 

Edict of the Synod at Loretto, 

(See "Documents," vol. i., p. 293-301.) 

Edict. 

The cardinal archbishop, the cardinal bishops, and other arch- 
bishops and bishops of the Marches and the province of Urbino. 

To their most beloved people of these dioceses, peace and benedic- 
tion in Jesus Christ. 

By means of special authorization of the most eminent signors, 
cardinals of the S. E. C, interpreters of the high council of Trent, 
the Holiness of our Lord, Pope Pius IX., happily reigning, by his 
venerated dispatch of the 14:th of June, 1855, has deigned to ap- 
prove the resolution taken by the bishops of the Marches and of fhe 
province of Urbino, united in ecclesiastical disciplinary synod in 
Loretto in the months of February and March of the year 1850. 
Hence it is that the undersigned cardinal, archbishops, and bishops, 
in the Lent of the current year, 1856, have felt it a sacred duty to 
publish the decrees, which are thought opportune for the removal 
of the disorders and scandals which most frequently arise among 
Christian people. 

Blasphemy, non-observance of the festivals, profanation of church- 
es, breach of fasts, and immorality, are the chief sources of scandal ; 
and, on this account, our attention has been specially directed to these. 

We shall not here repeat how horrible is blasphemy, by which is 
directly cursed or dishonored that God who gives us existence that 
we may praise and honor him. How irreligious and hurtful is the 
non-observance of festivals, both by the grave offense which it offers 
to God, who, as Master of time, has chosen for Himself those days, 
and reserved them for His worship, and by the loss of good, and in- 
curring of evil, which, according to His infallible promise, accom- 
pany it ! How impious is the profanation of churches, which are 
houses of God, chosen for His especial dwelling, replenished with 
His majesty, places of prayer and worship ! How insulting to the 
Church is the violation of fasts by the contempt of a precept which, 
while it injures in no sense, is useful even to the health of the body, 
and of immense benefit to the soul ! How indecent is immorality, 
by the degradation of those among whom, as among saints, such acts 
of uncleanness ought not to be named ! 



APPENDIX. 415 

We shall also abstain from calling to mind with what severe pun- 
ishment God has commanded^ in the Divine Scriptures, that such 
offenses should be visited; with what punishment also they are 
marked in the canon and civil law. All know that, according tq 
the circumstances of the person and the offense, according to places 
and times, now excommunication, now prison, now fine, now scourg- 
ing, now exile, and even death, have always been ordinary pains. 

Without abrogating any statutes now in force, we have here pre- 
scribed that which principally tends to repress and impede those 
scandals. It is with the highest repugnance that we feel ourselves 
obliged to publish decrees directed to this end, as if among Chris- 
tians there were those who are held to their duty more by fear of our 
penalties than by the menaces of the Divine Master himself, whose 
terrible words we ought always to have present to our minds : ' ' Woe 
to those by whom offenses come; woe to the world because of 
offenses." 

But since experience assures us that neither the love of God, nor 
the force of duty, nor the fear of the eternal and temporal penalties 
threatened by God, sufiices to hinder in some the public violation 
of Divine and ecclesiastical laws, we, upon whom it rests to forward 
by our care the salvation of all souls committed to our pastoral 
charge, can do no otherwise than use the right which God has de- 
posited in our hands for edification, when necessity demands it, with- 
out rendering ourselves responsible for the perdition of those who, by 
our fault, either do not return from the way of error, or follow evil 
examples not punished. 

While, however, we have not been able to evade the enactment 
of penalties against those who should offend, under any of the heads 
already named, the intention of our heart has been rather to cure 
than to punish ; whence we have made a point of distinguishing be- 
tween delinquents who are perverters and delinquents who are per- 
verts — that is, those who make themselves public transgressors of the 
laws of God and of the Church with a view to diminish or destroy 
the respect and veneration due to the sacred things, from those who 
fall into such offenses from want of proper care and consideration, 
or from those following depraved examples. Against the first we 
are obliged to proceed with all the rigor of the canon and civil law ; 
against the second, however, especially having reflected upon the 
number of scandals and seductions which have taken place in recent 
political and religious commotions, in the hope of securing their em- 



416 APPENDIX. 

endation by mild penalties, or, rather, by medicinal regime, we have 
determined to proceed according to the following rules : 

FiKST Head — ^Blasphemy. 

Article I. Blasphemy, and any insults proffered, in the presence 
of another, against the most holy name of God, of the most blessed 
Virgin, or of the saints, shall be summarily punished by from ten to 
thirty days' imprisonment, or by rigorous spiritual exercise in some 
religious house, at the will of the Ordinary. 

Article II. For a second offense the penalty will be more se- 
vere; and the prisoner must pass some days on bread and water, 
according to the greater or less gravity of the circumstances of the 
offense and of the delinquent. 

Article III. In obstinate cases, the ordinary penalties of the 
canon and civil law in force shall be applied, at the will of the Or- 
dinary. 

Article IV. Keepers of coffee-houses, hotels, public houses, eat- 
ing-houses, and such like, under the penalty of Article I., shall be 
obliged to correct blasphemers ; and even to expel from their shops, 
rooms, and places of resort those who shall persist in blaspheming 
after being rebuked. 

Article V. In case that they shall find opposition, and not be 
able to expel the blasphemers, they shaU report immediately to the 
officers of the Inquisition {la Curia), failing of which several times, 
measures of the greatest rigor shall be taken against them. 

Article VI. Under this head it is not intended to comprise those 
who studiously introduce, either with words or in writing, false prin- 
ciples concerning the divinity or against the doctrine of the Church, 
and, in general, those who utter heretical blasphemies, because these 
are not simple blasphemers, but dogmatizers and heretics, or, at least, 
suspected of heresy. Such will be proceeded against in the estab- 
lished forms [that is, by the canon and civil law as opposed to sum- 
mary punishment] ; and here we record the most weighty obligation 
that rests upon every one to denounce to the competent ecclesias- 
tical tribunals within the period of one month, under pain of excom- 
munication in the widest sense, the names of those whom they may 
have known to utter the above-named and similar perverse principles, 
or express heretical blasphemies. 

Article VII. It being, according to experience, very helpful in 
impeding blasphemies, to establish a confraternity of pious persons, 



APPENDIX. 417 

who, vested in a frock, and the head and face covered with a domi- 
no, shall go when the Ordinary feels it expedient, and present them- 
selves, either alone or two together, in the resorts and places where 
this vice is most frequent, to reprove blasphemies in kindly ways 
and with brotherly love. Also, the sound of the chief church bell 
of the place, in days and hours determined, (is useful) to call to the 
memory of every one the engagement both to abstain from blasphe- 
my and to apply paternal reproof. In eveiy city and district of our 
diocese where it does not already exist, shall be formed a confrater- 
nity under the title of the Most Holy Name of God ; and where 
this can not be established, the same duty shall be enjoined upon a 
confraternity already canonically established. And we decree that, 
in every city and village, the bell of the chief church shall be sound- 
ed every quarter of an hour — every Saturday at the hour of eight 
o'clock at night. 

Second Head — The Non-observance of Feasts. 

Article VHI. In the prescribed feast-days, from the midnight 
preceding to the midnight following, every one shall abstain from 
every servile work, and from all other work, even though not servile, 
in days expressly forbidden. 

Article IX. In case of necessity not contemplated in the follow- 
ing articles, every one must obtain a gratuitous permit of us, or of 
our vicar-general in the cities, and of the vicars of the courts in the 
districts ; and, failing them, of their own parish priest. 

Article X. It is forbidden to hold markets even on those feast- 
days. Let them be removed to those days not festivals preceding or 
following. The same is decreed of fairs. If, however, any of these 
have hitherto been tolerated on festival days from a very ancient date, 
they may be so at present, provided that the shops are shut, and busi- 
ness suspended in the hours of Divine service, according to the terms 
of the Constit. of Benedict XI Y., Ab eo tempore, November 5th, 1745. 

Article XI. It is equally forbidden to expose in squares or other 
public places, or to carry round, merchandise of any sort. 

Article XII. Those, however, who in fixed and accustomed 
places sell fish, fruit, vegetables, and other articles of food, will be 
tolerated, provided they remain distant from the church, in the 
neighborhood of which it shall always be forbidden to stand, and 
keep their merchandise covered, in the time of Divine service ceas- 
ing to vend them. 

S2 



418 APPENDIX. 

Article XIII. All shops, warehouses, offices, and similar places 
must remain always closed, and shall not be opened except in cases 
where they serve as entrances to private dwellings, for the simple 
convenience of ingress and egress. 

AiiTiCLE XIV. Keepers of coffee-houses, eating-houses, tobacco- 
nists, and salt-sellers, pork-butchers, butchers, bakers, sellers of flour 
and of other eatables, hotel-keepers, publicans, and other wine-vend- 
ers, even in private houses, will keep only a wicket open, and with- 
out any thing being displayed, except in the time of Divine service, 
when they shall keep their shops and places of trade entirely closed. 

Article XV. Barbers, except in the hours of Divine service, and 
at Easter and Christmas, may keep their doors open, but covered 
with a curtain. 

Article XVI. Chemists on any day or hour may sell medicine, 
and may keep their shops sufficiently open to give them light. 

Article XVII. No one shall transport merchandise, or any thing 
whatever, in carts with beasts, or in any other manner, unless it be 
in prosecution of a journey undertaken on a week-day, and after 
having heard the holy Mass. 

Article XVIII. All balls are prohibited, as also all games, in 
coffee-houses, inns, public houses, taverns, and such like, and also in 
public squares and roads, both in cities and in districts ; only in the 
afternoon, when the holy ceremonies are terminated, games not pro- 
hibited by the laws in force shall be tolerated. But to those who 
play at buttons, ball, foot-ball, or peg-top, and other such games, the 
neighborhood of churches, of monasteries, of asylums for orphan girls, 
and of infirmaries, are all prohibited. 

Article XIX. Tumblers, mountebanks, and other strollers, under 
whatever name comprehended, shall not mount on the stage, or hold 
parties, for songs or other sounds, for the sale of waters, balsams, or 
such things ; among these are included those vagabonds who expose 
in the streets or squares little altars, credence tables, or other things 
connected with statues and sacred images, relating stories, setting 
forth miracles, selling writs, cards, and other things, under the name 
of devotion, all which ar^ prohibited even in days not festivals. 

Article XX. Public, piows and representations, even though re- 
ligious, shall not take place without formal permission. 

Article XXI. Every transgression of the decrees expressed under 
this head shall be summarily punished by a fine of from five pauls to 
three scudis [that is, from two shillings to twelve shillings], or with 



APPENDIX. 419 

imprisonment from two to twelve days; but fathers, masters, and 
guardians shall be prosecuted with greater severity, who shall have 
made their children or their dependents do such forbidden work. 

Article XXII. For a second offense the penalty will be doubled, 
and also against keepers of coffee-houses, inns, public houses, and 
such like, who shall allow games (see Article XVIII. ) in their shops, 
and against those who shall hold balls, or lend their rooms, and 
against those who, enjoying permission to sell, in the hours permit- 
ted, eatables alone, shall in those hours sell other merchandise, in 
evasion of the law. 

Article XXIII. In cases of obstinacy, measures of the utmost 
rigor shall be taken, according to the guilt of the offense and gravity 
of the circumstances. 

Third Head — Profanation op Churches. 

[Under this head eleven articles describe all sorts of irreverence, 
such as keeping on the hat, not bowing at the elevation of the Host, 
women coming in with their heads uncovered, and other offenses, 
and it concludes thus :] 

Article XXXIV. In processions due religious reverence shall 
be observed ; and when the holy viaticum is met in the public way, 
the knee must be bowed to the earth and the head uncovered. 

Article XXXV. Violators of the above-named regulations shall 
be proceeded against by summary punishment, according to the 
gravity of the fault and the scandal which it has caused. 

Article XXXVI. The obstinate shall be punished with heavier 
pains ; and those who have been several times summarily punished 
without effect, or who are chargeable with graver faults, shall be 
punished according to the forms of the sacred canons and of the ex- 
isting penal law. Article LXXIV. and following. 

Fourth Head — On the Violation op Fasts. 

Article XXXVII. On fast-days, and on those whereon meats 
arc forbidden, if there is just cause, it is lawful to use them in pri- 
vate, under the direction of a physician ; Mit, to avoid scandal, keep- 
ers of lodging-houses, eating-houses, cofF;c-houses, inns, and such 
like, shall not serve forbidden food, except to those persons who shall 
produce a certificate, signed by both a physician and the parish 
priest. 

Article XXXVIII. Physicians and parish priests shall not give 



420 APPENDIX. 

such certificates except to persons whom, according to their knowl- 
edge and conscience, they shall judge to have need of the prohibited 
food. 

Article XXXIX. Those who have a lawful dispensation to use 
prohibited food in days of abstinence and of fast are forbidden to eat 
them openly in eating-houses, lodging-houses, coffee-houses, inns, or 
other places ; they may only take them in separate places or cham- 
bers. 

Article XL. It is truly deplorable that some keepers of lodging- 
houses, eating-houses, inns, and such like, to the great scandal and 
wonder of good men, have not ready on days of abstinence Lenten 
diet to offer to those guests who are not furnished with the certificate 
of a doctor or parish priest, as above : they are reminded of the 
strict duty incumbent upon them not to fail to have in their houses 
in the days specified this kind of food, and the guilt which on failure 
of this they will incur under a violated law. 

Article XLL Hosts are not permitted to cook meat on the days 
indicated ; and when persons who have a written license to use it 
shall produce this license to them, they shall prepare the food in a 
place not open to the public. 

Article XLII. Offenses against the regulations contained under 
this head shall be summarily punished, as in Article XXI. 

Article XLIII. For a second offense the penalty shall be double ; 
and those who shall be guilty of multiplied offenses, or of open con- 
tempt, shall be proceeded against with all the rigor of the existing 
canon and civil law. 

Fifth Head — Immorality. 

It is forbidden to give or serve to others in whatever manner, or 
expose in public under whatever pretext, books, printed papers, and 
obscene works, under the pain of imprisonment from jive to fifteen 
days, besides the forfeit of the articles. 

Article XLV. Obscene songs, in whatever place or time, shall 
be punished with imprisonment from three to nine days. 

Article XL VI. Under the same penalty it is forbidden to bathe 
or fish with the body naked, in public or frequented places, or in the 
neighborhood of dwellings where the two sexes are mixed together. 

Article XL VII. Licentious reprecentations of whatever kind, if 
in private, shall be punished by from five to fifteen da3's of prison ; 
if in public, with double that penalty. 



APPENDIX- 421 

Article XL VIII. They shall be equally punished who in public 
houses, cellars, inns, hotels, or other similar places, shall give accom- 
modation to persons of the two sexes to lose themselves in licentious 
entertainment j and if they do not desist, their licenses will be sus- 
pended. 

Article XLIX. Keepers of hotels, lodging-houses, coffee-houses, 
and such like, are forbidden to have in their service women brought 
under the surveillance of the Holy Office for their bad conduct. In 
case of transgression, if they continue to retain them, they shall be 
punished under the preceding article. 

Article L. Acquaintances suspected of offenses contrary to good 
morals, when scandals arise, if they shall be continued after admo- 
nition, shall be restrained by the commands of the Holy Office, and 
in case of contravention they shall undergo the penalties determined 
upon in the command. 

Article LI. All those on whom rest the care and custody of 
young people, when they shall be discovered to connive either at un- 
lawful loves, or shall blamably neglect to remove the occasions of 
them, if after being admonished they persist, shall be punished with 
imprisonment from three to nine days: should the case arise in 
which the young people responsible to them render themselves liable 
to punishment, they shall also be punished with double the penalty, 
and all prayers and measures which they may take to obtain com- 
pensation or reparation shall be rejected. 

Article LII. For second offenses in any case whatever contem- 
plated under this head, penalties may be inflicted according to cir- 
cumstances. 

Article LIII. Those who shall offend frequentty, or be guilty 
of offenses against good manners and decency, especially comprised 
in the penal laws in force, from Article CLXVIII. to Article 
CLXXXVII. inclusively, shall be proceeded against according to 
the forms of the canon and civil law. 

general regulations. 

Article LIV. In all the above-named cases, in order to apply 
the summary punishments, a simple and speedy procedure will suf- 
fice, when the facts, generally and specially, shall be stated. The 
names of the informers and witnesses shall be kept secret. 

Article LV. The fine shall be given, one half to the benefit of 

places of worship, appointed by the Ordinary ; and the other half 

S* 



422 APPENDIX. 

shall be divided, part to the informer, and part to the police, if they 
have had to do with the case. When the punishment shall be other 
than fine, if the person guilty has the means, he must pay fifty half- 
pence for the benefit of the informer or police, as above, besides his 
expenses for victuals and other things as in reason. 

Article LVI. The messengers and other agents of the Holy Of- 
fice, as also the police, are bound to look diligently to the execution 
of all that is prescribed in this edict, and also to proceed immediate- 
ly to arrest delinquents, if found in the act. 

Article LVII. If they shall neglect to fulfill this duty, the mes- 
sengers and agents shall be immediately dismissed ; and as to the 
police, the superior military authority shall be called upon to take 
further steps. 

Article LVIII. The present edict must always be kept publicly 
posted up in the sacristies of parish churches, and of others most 
known and frequented, as also in lodging-houses, and eating-houses, 
and inns, under pain of a fine of twenty halfpence, to be applied as 
above, Article LV. 

Article LIX. Further, this edict shall be published by the rever- 
end parish priests from the altars, and posted up in the usual places, 
after which it shall have the same force as if it had been presented to 
every individual personally. 

Given at Loretto on the 8th of March, 1850. 

Philip, Cardinal Archbishop of Fermo, President ; John, Cardinal 
Bishop of Osimo and Cingoli ; Dominick, Cardinal Bishop of Sini- 
gaglia ; Charles Louis, Cardinal Archbishop, Bishop of Jesi ; An- 
tony Maria Benedict, Archbishop, Bishop of Ancona ; Alexander, 
Archbishop of Urbino; Felix, Archbishop of Camerino; Louis, 
Bishop of Fano ; Francis, Bishop of Fabriano and Matelica ; Boni- 
face, Bishop of Pergola and Cagli ; Eleonoro, Bishop of Montalto ; 
Francis, Bishop of Sansseverino ; Amadius, Bishop of Macerata and 
Tolentino; Guerr' Antony, Bishop of St. Angelo and of Urbania; 
Crispin, Bishop of Montefeltro ; Philip, Bishop of Fossombrone ; 
Faithful, Bishop of Eipatransone ; John Francis, Bishop of Recana- 
ti and Loretto; Charles, Bishop of Ascoli; John Baptist Ceruti, 
Vicar Apostolic of Pisano. 



APPENDIX. 423 

E, p. 200. 

Decree of an Inquisitor^ General. 

The Inquisition and the Morality of its Laws. 

( The following Decree has still the force of law.) 

DECREE. 

We, Brother Philip Bertolotti of the Order of Preachers, Master 
in Sacred Theology in the cities and dioceses of Pesaro, Rimini, 
Fano, Pennabilli, and the lands and places annexed, Inquisitor 
General of the Holy Apostolic See, specially delegated against he- 
retical corruptions : 

We, desiring (as is demanded by the duties of the Holy Office im- 
posed on us) that the Catholic faith, without which, as writes the 
Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, it is impossible to please Ood, should 
be preserved within this our jurisdiction from all heretical contagion 
immaculate and pure ; and it being manifest from experience that 
many from malice or from disobedience, and others from ignorance, 
do not discharge the most stj'ict obligation wider which they lie to de- 
nounce to the Holy Office the offenses appej^taining to it, and that hence 
spring up things unbecoming, and offenses not only against good 
morals, but expressly against the Catholic faith. We, therefore, 
who should have at heart the glory of God, the full preservation and 
increase of the said holy faith, and the salvation of souls, to prevent 
all disorder, do, with the apostolic authority conceded to us, com- 
mand, in virtue of holy obedience, and under pain of major excommu- 
nication, besides the other punishments prescribed by the sacred can- 
ons, decrees, constitutions, and bulls of the sovereign pontiff in the 
spirit of the present edict, to all and every person of whatever state, 
grade, condition, or dignity, as well ecclesiastical as secular, that 
within the term of one month, ten days of which remain assigned for the 
first, ten days for the second, and ten for the third peremptory term^ 
they SHOULD reveal and judicially notify to us, or to our vicars, 
or the respective ordinaries of the places, all and every of that and 
what they may know concerning those that are heretics, or suspected 
or slandered as being heretics, or favorers, or harborers, or defenders 
of heretics, or those who have adhered or do adhere to the rites of 
the eTews, or of the Mohammedans, or of the pagans, or have aposta- 
tized from the holy Catholic faith. 

Those who have committed or are committing any acts from which 



424 APPENDIX. 

one can infer an expressed or tacit covenant with the devil, 

exercising incantations, magic arts, witchcrafts, offering suffumiga- 
TIONS TO THE SAME, «?2ce72se or pr ay crs for finding treasures, or other 
unlawful means, invoking him or promising obedience to him, or do- 
ing other things in which his name or works may intervene : who may 
have meddled, or who do meddle in experiments in necromancy, or 
any sort of magic whatever, with abuse of the sacraments or sacra- 
mental things, or of things sacred or blessed. 

Who, not being priests, with sacrilegious daring have usurped or 
do usurp the office of celebrating the holy mass, or have presumed 
to administer the sacrament of penance to the faithful of Jesus 
Christ. 

Who have abused or do abuse the sacrament of penance, and the 
place of the same, contrary to the decrees and the apostolic ordi- 
nances. 

Who have held or do hold secret conventicles or assemblies, to the 
injury, or in contempt of the holy Catholic religion. 

Who against the blessed God, the most holy Virgin Mary, and 
against the saints, have offered or do offer heretical blasphemies, or 
have committed or are committing any act whatsoever of contempt 
or of injury against the holy images. 

Who, notwithstanding the solemn vow made at the profession of 
any religious order approved by the Church, and after having taken 
holy orders, have contracted, or are about contracting, or endeavor- 
ing to contract, matrimony. 

Who, their first wife being alive, take a second, or, their first hus- 
band being alive, take a second, or who have endeavored or do en- 
deavor to do this. 

Who have impeded or who do impede in any way the work of the 
Holy Inquisition, or who in any manner have contravened the bull 
of his Holiness Pius V., which commences Si deprotegendis. 

Who have made satires or published ivritings against the high pon- 
tiff, the sacred college, the superiors, the ecclesiastics, or against the 
regular orders, or who have composed or published writings of any 
sort in which may be abuse or profanation of sacred words. 

Who without the necessary permission may keep in their possession 
ivritings or prints which may contain heresies, or heretical books 
professedly contrary to religion, or who may read, print, or cause 
the same to be printed, or who may introduce or circulate them un- 
der any pretext whatsoever. 



APPENDIX. 425 

Such persons as without necessity or leave have eaten or given to 
eat meat, eggs, or milk foods on forbidden days, in disregard of the 
commands of the holy Church. 

Who have induced any Christian to embrace Judaism, or any oth~ 
e^' sect contrary to the holy Catholic religion, or who have in any 
way hindered Jews or .Turks from having themselves baptized. Be 
it declared, however, that the said enumeration of cases by us speci- 
fied as to be revealed to the Inquisition does not exclude the other 
cases appertaining thereto, or which are comprised in the sacred 
canons, decrees, and bulls of the high pontiff. Much less is the 
present edict intended to derogate from the other apostolical canoni- 
cal provisions, and the other edicts emanating from the ordinaries or 
inquisitors. Be it declared besides that those who will not denounce as 
ordered by the present edict can not be absolved from any excommunica- 
tion incuri^ed by them until after they have as above judicially revealed 
the delinquents ; and that, although the assigned term of the month 
may have passed as above, the obligation still remains to reveal and de- 
nounce under the same penalties until such time as the person possessed 
of the infoi^mation shall have effectively informed and denounced. And 
in order that the present edict, together with the orders, as well gen- 
eral as special, may come to the knowledge of all, we ordain and 
command that they be Icept posted up in the sacristies of the churches 
belonging as well to the secular as to the regular clergy. To the end 
that no one may remain ignorant of the present orders or withdraw 
himself from obedience, we enjoin upon all pririters, booksellers, custom- 
house officers, tax collectors, gate-keepers, inn-keepers, lodging -house- 
keepers, and shop-keepers, all respectively, that they keep posted up a 
copy of the present edict in their respective printing-houses, book- 
shops, custom-houses, gates, inns, lodging-houses, and shops, and in 
a public place where it can be seen and read by all. 

EXHORTATION. 

The principal, rather the only object of the Inquisition being, as 
has been said above, the glory of God, the exaltation of the holy 
faith, and the salvation of souls, therefore, after having commanded 
and ordained as above, now we exhort fraternally all those who may 
know themselves to be guilty of some crime appertaining to the In- 
quisition, to present themselves before us, or before our vicars, or be- 
fore the ordinary of the place, spontaneously, before being antici- 
pated or denounced by others, and to confess with all sincerity and 



426 APPENDIX. 

integrity their errors and their shortcomings; assuring them that 

WHENEVER THEY HAVE NOT BEEN LEGALLY ANTICIPATED BEFORE 

ANY OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL TRIBUNAL, they ivillhe received with how- 
els of charity, and treated luith special compassion, the natural dispo- 
sition of this sacred tribunal, and in that way without any danger, or 
without public penance or punishment, they will be absolved and 
discharged. 

PARTICULAR ORDERS. 

Pertaining to the orders enjoined by us relative to the printing, 
introduction, sale, and promulgation of wicked and prohibited books, 
and being specially interested that in the cities and places under our 
jurisdiction should be preserved that purity of faith which, by the 
grace of the Most High, exists at present, we ordain and expressly 
command that no one dare to print, introduce, sell, or circulate books 
within or without the cities or places subject to us, without their hav- 
ing been subjected to the revision of the Inquisition, and of the offi- 
cer belonging to it, under the punishment established by the sacred 
canons, the general and special decrees of the sacred congregation, 
and the apostolic constitutions which have been issued and promul- 
gated on this subject, and especially by those of Clement VIII. and 
Gregory XV. 

Besides, as being inseparable from the orders, decrees, edicts of 
the supreme tribunal of the Inquisition at Eome, and the constitu- 
tions and pontifical bulls respectively published and promulgated 
with respect to the Jews, especially as regards cohabitation and fa- 
miliarizing with them, we ordain and command that no one dares to 
transgress the orders and prescriptions in these cases under the pen- 
alties in them expressed and threatened. 

Given at the Inquisition of Pesaro the 15th of September, 1841. 
For FiLiPPO Bertolotti, Inquisitor General. 

Antonio Severini, Chancellor General of the Inquisition. 
(** Documents," vol. i., p. 302.) 



INDEX. 



Absolution, mode of finding, changed, 

212. 
Accusations suggested and enforced Iby 

torture, 197, 199, 40T, 408, 412, 413. 
Addresses to the Pope, 39T-401. 
Amnesty, the papal, and its exceptions, 

185, 18T, 3T1, 372. 
Antonelli, Cardinal, 182, 275, 310, 344, 

347, 352-355, 366-369, 373, 378, 383, 

385, 390. 
Apostles, why thirteen ? 308. 
Architectural beauty of cities, 34, 36. 
Armonia, L' (Jesuit paper), 54. 
Assassination, official incitement to, 192, 

193. 
Austria and Austrians, 57, 73, 101, 102, 

120, 126, 127, 137, 170, 182, 183, 383- 

389, 393. 
Austrian repression of papal cruelties, 

102,387,388,406. 
Azeglio, D', family, 54, 56, 59. 
Basilicas, privileges of, 285, 286. 
Bedini, Archbishop, 102, 182, 185, 194, 

195, 376, 383, 384, 406. 
Benediction, the out-of-door, 355. 
Bengal lights, punishment for burning, 

374. 
Bevilacqua, Marquis of, 371. 
Bible Society, the, at Milan, 97, 98. 
Blasphemy, punishment for, 203, 204. 

416. 
Bologna, Coi'poration of, 181, 183, 191, 

192, 393, 394. 
Bologna, judgment of court of, 191, 192, 

411-413. 
Bonaccioli, Hannibal, 131. 
Bonaccioli, Professor Thomas, 380-382. 
Book shops, 95, 97, 136. 
Bread and water, 126, 191, 200, 416. 
Buona Novella, La (Vaudois paper), 55. 
Capitol, the, 290, 293. 
Capuchin monks, the, 141. 
Carignano, Prince of, 225, 231, 314. 
Cathedral of Milan, the, 83, 84. 
Catholic and Roman Catholic, 104, 109, 

142, 339-342. 
Catholicity of religious denominations in 

England, 247, 248. 
Cavour, 26, 44, 45, 56, 72, 173, 243, 244, 

251,301,392. 
Celibacy of priests, 169, 171, 322. 



Churches open for private devotion, 63. 

Civilta Cattolica, La, 64, 67, 173, 243, 
244, 251, 301, 391. 

Climate, its effects on man, 117, 119. 

Cocchi, Colonel, and the amnesty, 185. 

Coffee-houses, benefits of, 279, 280. 

Commandments of God changed, 212, 
213. 

Commandments of the Church, 213. 

Como, 99, 101, 103. 

Confession, mode of, 142, 213. 

Confessions of crime, suggested, enforced, 
and retracted, 197, 199. 

Constitution, Roman, of 1848, 367-371. 

Converts from popery, 135. 

Corcelles, Monsieur de, apology for pon- 
tifical government, 193. 

Corruption and invention, 210. 

Corsi, Canon, murder of, 174. 

Council of Censure, 375, 376, 384. 

Courtship and its laws, 201. 

Cudgelman, 189. 

Decalogue changed, 213, 216, 237. 

De Santis, Dr., 40. 

Deserters from papal army, 195. 

Despotism, temporal, arises out of spirit- 
ual, 57. 

Destroy, not excepting infants, 365. 

Dialects of Italy, difficulty for travelers, 
71, 72, 87. 

Dogs set upon prisoners, 198. 

Dolfi, Giuseppe, and Lord Normanby, 
233. 

Dottrina Christiana, La, 214. 

Drinks, national, 85, 326, 327. 

Duchesses of Parma, 139. 

Duke of Milan and the papal bull, 98. 

Dying men and their property, 322, 325, 
379-382. 

Eardley, Sir Cullen, 61. 

Easter Sunday at Rome, 342, 343. 

Eight hundred condemned in a single 
sentence, 197. 

Elections, morality of, 152, 153. 

England, feeling toward, 12, 43, 87, 88, 
94, 111. 

England, the land of home, 171. 

Enlistment for papal army, 390, 391. 

Excommunication, feeling respecting, 49, 
52, 72, 76, 88, 96, 97, 108, 112, 136, 137, 
300, 301, 335-339. 



428 



INDEX, 



Executions, 198, 374, 394, 401, 407, 408. 
Executorship, an agreeable, 379, 382. 
False witness, 175, 178, 197, 198, 389, 

407, 408, 412. 
Farina, 41, 63, 65, 67, 91, 143. 
Feasts and fasts, punishment for non- 
observance of, 417, 420. 
Fermo, three young men of, 174, 178. 
Ferrara, three men of, 125, 132, 406-409. 
Fetes, 225. 

Fines, part payment to informers, 210. 
Forli, 187, 191, 383, 384, 390. 
Frascati, 278, 279, 293, 337. 
Fuligno, judgment of court of, 364, 365. 
Galli on finance, 378. 
Garibaldi, 72, 75, 76, 100, 101, 169, 888, 

405. 
Garibaldi's wife, 101, 102, 405, 406. 
Gavazzi prevented preaching, 235. 
Gens d'armes, papal, 290, 292. 
Giornale di Eoma, 65, 280, 281, 395. 
Good Friday in Eome, 327. 
Government of the priests, 102, 108, 124, 

125, 126, 135, 162, 169, 172, 175, 196, 

197, 199, 209, 292, 322, 323, 325, 363.' 

365, 374,375, 379,382,395. 
Governor of Milan, Massimo d'Azeglio, 

56, 91, 99. 
Haystacli huts, 273. 
Hemans, Mr. C. J., 331, 347, 350, 351. 
He may go to Jerusalem or Antloch, 238. 
He pays himself well. 111. 
Heresy and heretics, 200, 202, 320, 416, 

424. 
Hilliers, Baraguay d', 121. 
Historic ruins, idea represented by, 293. 
Holy father and dear bread, 291. 
Holy stair, the, 296, 297, 298. 
Hudson, Sir James, 246, 247. 
Idea, the, 16, 43, 111. 
Illuminations, 63, Q6^ 81, 82, 91, 92, 244, 

357. 
Images, 343, 344, 358. 
Immorality, penalties for, 420, 421. 
Immunity of priests from jurisdiction of 

civil courts disregarded by Austrians, 

887, 388. 
Indulgences, 77, 285. 
Infonners' and witnesses' names kept 

secret, 200, 375, 398, 421. 
Inquisition, the, 200, 202, 364, 416, 421, 

422, 423-426. 
Insolence, punishment for, 191. 
Islamism and Romanism, 402, 403. 
Italians, physically, 119. 
It is not always the guilty who die, 178, 

398 
King of Gloiy, 347-350. 
Ladies jumping, 313. 
Lamoriciere, 347, 357. 
Lateran, the, 296, 304, 335. 
Light, power of, 20, 33, 263, 295, 296. 
Lodi, 121, 122. 

London, architecture of, 35, 36. 
Loretto, edict of the Synod of, 199, 414, 

422. 



Loretto, holy house of, 315, 316. 

Luther on the Holy Stair, 297, 298. 

Magenta, 75, 76. 

Marble or plaster? interior of St. Peter's, 
305. 

Maremma, the, 232. 

Marliani, Count, 170. 

Medical aid, 393, 394. 

Melegnano, who commanded at the bat- 
tle? 120, 121. 

Milanese, assembly of, their opinions, 
106, 111. 

Minister and priest, distinction between, 
45, 46, 166, 167. 

Modena, 143. 

Modern Rome, 294, 295. 

Monterosi, sample of the Campagni, 275, 
276. 

Mortara family, the, visit to, 61, 62. 

Mothers of families, group of one hundred 
begging, 376. 

Motu Proprio, 371. 

Mourning banner, 91, 226. 

jMunicipal governmenfe^j 377, 378. 

Murray, 257, 303. 

Naples, king's palace emblematic of his 
government, 110, 111. 

Napoleon IIL, 25, 26, 42, 43, 145, 147, 363, 
409-411. 

National Guard, 364, 386. 

National stability, what constitutes ? 170, 
171. 

Nave, the, of St, Peter's, fault in propor- 
tion, 303. 

Ney, M. Edgar, 366. 

Nuns of Milan, 82. 

Oh, he is a soldier, 76. 

Order, public, 91, 169, 245, 397, 400, 401. 

Orlati, Baptist, punishment for irrever- 
ence and heresy, 202, 203. 

Oudinot, General, 363, 364. 

Papers to read, 85. 

Parma, 138, 143, 144. 

Pasquino and the excommunication, 53. 

Passports, 217, 225, 278, 389. 

Pepoli, Count, 149, 153, 169, 170. 

Physical conformation of Italy, 119. 

Piacenza, 117, 123, 124, 136, 137, 140, 
325. 

Piedmontese, feeling toward the French, 
26. 

Piedmontese, not revolutionary propa- 
gandists, 44. 

Pio Nono, 172, 173, 201, 237, 275, 310, 
314, 319, 349, 367-371, 374, 381, 382, 
387, 395, 414. 

Poison, precautions against, 351. 

Police, priests, and robbers, alleged col- 
lusion between, 220. 

Political robe, the, 171, 172. 

Pope's curse and his blessing, England 
and Naples, 53, 113, 114. 

Pope's Irish Brigade, lands for, 278. 

Portative throne, the, 346. 

Preaching among reformed Italians, 
character of, 239. 



INDEX. 



429 



Press in Roman States, 64, 65, 184, 

185. 
Priest and his breviary, discussion with, 

103-lOT. 
Priest (Hugo Bassi) shot hy Austrians, 

887. 
Priests as patriots, 48, 49, 86, 87, 97, 

170. 
Protestant Tburial-ground at Eome, 819, 

321. 
Protestant congregations at Florence, 

233, 234. 
Protestant and Roman Catholic coun- 
tries, difference between, 162, 164. 
Purchase system in the army, 22, 25. 
Radetzky, refusal to receive papal sub- 
jects in his army, 194. 
Reformed Italian Christians, views of, 

248, 249. 
Relics, 298, 299, 333, 334, 354. 
Religious liberty and the Italian patriots, 

58, 61, 170, 234, 237, 250. 
Religious prospects of Italy, 247. 
Religious orders, differences between, 321, 

322. 
Revolution led by natural heads of the 

people, 154, 165. 
River, what constitutes the identity of a, 

288. 
Roman railways, 279. 
Rossi, Prelate Stephen, recommends the 

bastinade, 188. 
Rota Romana, 381. 
Sacraments changed, 211. 
St. Jean de Mauiienne, 14, 16. 
St. Peter's, 280, 286, 302, 305, 307, 317. 
Savoy, feeling respecting annexation to 

France, 9, 12, 25, 26, 43. 
Secret Court of Censure, 375. 
Sermons, 106, 155, 160, 239, 271. 
Seven hills, the, 293, 294. 
Sincere defenders of the Church, where 

are they? 89,90. 



Singing in churches, 160, 161, 234, 238, 

300. 
Sistine Chapel, 304. 
Skies, comparison between those of Italy, 

Egypt, and America, 256. 
Soldiers in church, 314. 
Spezzia, Gulf of, 261, 262. 
Steam horse and English ideas, 278. 
Strange Sundays, 93. 
Students in the coffee-houses, 84, 85. 
Subjection of pontifical government to 

Austrians, 383-394. 
Subjects, the great inconvenience of papal 

government, 193. 
Supper of the thirteen apostles, 315, 317. 
Surplice, the, among the olives, 220, 221. 
Taxes, 378, 379, 400. 
Teaching humility, 317, 318. 
Temporal and spiritual power of the 

Pope, distinction between, 48, 57, 58, 

97, 170, 238, 382, 383, 391, 392, 401. 
Tenebrse, ceremony of, 328-331. 
They that are idle eat, they that labor 

starve, 323. 
Three Lombard officers, 73. 
Tiber, the, 275, 287, 288, 294, 295. 
Ticino, the, 74. 

Tobacco, refusal to smoke, 372. 
Too near, the Italians, not to know what 

the Popes are, 137. 
Torture, 125, 197, 199, 203, 372, 377, 388, 

395, 407, 408, 412, 413. 
Tuscan government superior to papal, 

217. 
Vaudois, the, 36, 39, 65, 66, 76, 233, 248. 
Velva, the pass of, 264. 
Venetia, 91, 112, 119, 120. 
Vines and violence, 326, 327. 
Washing the apostles' feet, 307, 313. 
We are a nation, 43, 63, 85. 
Wines and their effects, 326, 327. 
Worship changed, 211. 
You can buy any thing, 77. 



THE END. 



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